2021 Head Wilton Hill Shiraz

96 POINTS

Halliday Wine Companion - Panel Score

Alex Head's flagship shiraz from the 1965 plantings of the Wilton Hill Vineyard at 480m elevation in the Barossa Ranges, wild ferment, 30% whole bunch and 17 months in 25% new Troncais barriques. Deep crimson with beautiful dark and black fruits, deep and resonant with hints of baking spice, plum compote, cedar, licorice, tobacco, sage, pressed wildflowers and earth. The Troncais oak rolls in with a bit more volume on the palate, the fruit is just lovely, and the finish is like a roll of thunder, fading off into the distance slowly. Superb. Dave Brookes Published 07 August 2024

96 POINTS

Dave Brookes - Halliday's Wine Companion

Alex Head's flagship shiraz from the 1965 plantings of the Wilton Hill Vineyard at 480m elevation in the Barossa Ranges, wild ferment, 30% whole bunch and 17 months in 25% new Troncais barriques. Deep crimson with beautiful dark and black fruits, deep and resonant with hints of baking spice, plum compote, cedar, licorice, tobacco, sage, pressed wildflowers and earth. The Troncais oak rolls in with a bit more volume on the palate, the fruit is just lovely, and the finish is like a roll of thunder, fading off into the distance slowly. Superb.

95 POINTS

James Suckling

Old clonal material sitting lofty, sandwiched between the Barossan lowlands and the Eden Valley high. There is a good deal more oak on this wine than its peers, yet the material is so dense, pliant and miraculously fresh, that it will surely suck it up in time. Soaring floral scents, barrel-ferment smokiness and blue to darker fruit allusions doused with the spices of the souk. A little worked, to be churlish, yet fine all the same. Oddly, I find more heat on the back of this than its Ancestor Vine brethren. Drink or hold, but best after 2028.

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

Oh my introductions to wine! Well, for one thing, I hate wines sealed with wax. This one is OK, because it’s soft wax, not the stupid chippy wax that comes with Raveneau and Foillard, so that’s something, though anything that makes it harder to open a bottle of wine I see as an obstacle that needs to be overcome. This one needs a deep cut first, and then into it. So, here we have an Eden Valley Shiraz from a vineyard planted in 1965. Flaxman Valley. 30% whole bunch. 25% new oak. Lots of sweet dark sage-laced and truffle infused fruit here. Cocoa and cola, blackcurrant and mulberry, peppermint too, and it’s kind of muddy and slurpy, perhaps a bit soupy and saucy, and feels a bit developed. Tannin is thick and grainy on a finish of decent length. Not mad on the flavour profile here, though I expect some people will like it. Maybe it’s just me.