2022 Alkina ‘Polygon No 1’ Shiraz

96 POINTS

Stuart Knox - The Real Review

Full and bright ruby-red core, vibrant purple shines through the rim. Blueberry, hot gravel and pencil shaving aromatics. Deep and dense core of black and blue fruits but the driving force of this wine is its savoury elements, dried herbs, black pepper, dark stones and dried blood all fill the senses with their intensity. Tannins are powerful and drying, ensuring the wine drives incredibly long and deep, almost never ending.

96 POINTS

Dave Brookes - Halliday's Wine Companion

Shiraz sourced from the quartzite and schist soils of the 1950s-planted Polygon No. 1 on the winery's Greenock estate; 50% whole bunches and matured in unlined concrete tulip and egg. Bright magenta-splashed crimson with characters of macerated blood plum, blueberry and boysenberry with an array of Asian spice tones, crushed flowering and amaro herbs, black pepper, powdered ironstone, pressed flowers and more distant glimpses of sarsaparilla, graphite and roasting venison. Calm, deep and resonant with a graphitey, powdered rock wildness and firm-yet-fine ferruginous tannins. Looking very much 'Hermitage'-like in its structure and palate travel. 746 bottles produced.

95 POINTS

Ned Goodwin MW

svelte, moreish, exotically fragrant and prodigiously detailed expression of Barossan shiraz, built from a foundation of levity over obvious power. Far from the Madding Crowd. Pithy, dried black olive, bergamot, licorice strap, violet and a murmur of licorella pungency. The sub-strata of this vineyard is limestone dominant, bolstered by clay. Little or no schist, apparently. The finish is pixelated and long, drawn taut by a vibrato of energy. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold.