2022 Head Wilton Hill Shiraz

96 POINTS

Ken Gargett - Winepilot

The Wilton Hill vineyard in Eden Valley was planted at an altitude of 480 metres back in 1965. Alex uses partial whole bunch fermentation. This wine represents just 0.5% of his total production, so you can be pretty certain that his top fruit is destined for here and the result is a cracker, a wine worthy of the title of Barossa icon. From a top vintage, only 576 bottles were made. Under Diam. The colour is an inky dark maroon with a garnet rim. Still very young, we have notes of chocolate, tobacco leaves, smoked meats, sage, black fruits, coffee beans, beef stock, licorice and a touch of graphite. The oak integration is exemplary. Structure is immaculate with a silky texture and serious length, this is finely balanced with cushiony tannins. Love it. This wine should provide immense pleasure for the next fifteen plus years and continue to improve even further over that period.

96 POINTS

Dave Brookes - Halliday Wine Companion

Alex Head's flagship wine is sourced from a 1965-planted, old-vine Eden Valley shiraz vineyard at 480m altitude on top of the Barossa Ranges. There's considerable depth and pedigree here. Deeply coloured in the glass with aromas of blackberry, doris plum, black cherry and kirsch. Hints of baking spice, sage, bay leaf, crushed rock, pan juices, licorice and violets. Blackforest cake, distant cedar and earth. It's a decadent, deeply fruited wine with a powdered, granitic architecture, a fine mineral line and substantial length and depth of flavour. Very impressive indeed.

95 POINTS

James Suckling

A well-driven, layered and attractive shiraz. On the nose it exhibits dark cherries, chocolate wafers, cured meat and a mix of warm and exotic spices. Full-bodied with fine, ripe tannins. Focused and textural, with plenty of drive and precision on the palate. The intensity meets the generous berries and spices in the long, flavorful and extensive finish.

95 POINTS

Angus Hughson - Vinous

The single-vineyard 2022 Shiraz Wilton Hill, from almost 60-year-old vines, is punchy and tight with embryonic aromas of blackberry, camphor, bay leaf and dark chocolate with a strong dose of spice. This is quite a stunning wine; it's a seamless, cerebral, fresh, balanced and superb example of the modern Barossa style with a sustained yet fine finish supported by a firm core of tannins.

92 POINTS

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

576 bottles produced from 1965 plantings. Blackcurrant, sage, dried mint, truffle, liquorice, spiced mocha oak. It’s a thick wine, lots of silty tannin, truffle and tobacco, a dark chocolate bitterness here, some raspberry tang, a dry and grainy finish of some warmth and bold length. It’s a good wine in its style.