Brand & Sons ‘Night Owls’ Shiraz Malbec 2021

93 POINTS

Sam Kim - Wine Orbit

It's fruit-forward and inviting on the nose, with dark berry, olive, game and toasted nut aromas, followed by a succulent palate displaying plump mouthfeel and silky texture. Beautifully framed by grainy tannins, making it bold and sturdy with a lingering, flavoursome finish.

92 POINTS

Campbell Mattinson - The Wine Front

This is via Sam Brand: “We had tried to put together a Cabernet Malbec to mirror a wine produced by Brands Laira in the early 1980s but the Malbec parcel kept overpowering the Cabernet. It wasnt until we tried some densely concentrated Shiraz that the wine started to come together.” There’s heft here but there’s character too. This is a red wine to sit down and settle in with. Blackcurrant, mulberry, leather, mint and strawberry notes combine to produce a substantial-but-lively wine, with more treble than bass but certainly with no shortage of the former. Toast and bay leaf notes hover without causing much of a stir. Excellent drinking to be had here.