2022 Standish Lamella Shiraz

100 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Wine Advocate

The 2022 Lamella Shiraz has a little secret held within, and it's one not noted on the label. Within this cuvée, is just two barrels of fruit from the Stonegarden Vineyard, the original Lamella Vineyard, before the current Huttonvale Farm. Stonegarden was planted in the Eden Valley in the middle 1800s and is a historic site. The wine rises with Chinotto and blood orange, black tea and pressed flowers. It is, in its quiet way, kaleidoscopic and mottled ... it does not stay still, it gently moves across the palate like sunlight over the course of a day. The long finish speaks of raspberry pip and sandalwood, pomegranate, Boscobel rose and even the softest suggestion of scraped vanilla pod. If you have the benefit of time, I would recommend tasting this on both day one and day two. As I see it, day two has all of the complexity of day one, with the added seamlessness and silk that only time can bring. This is the most alluring Lamella I can recall ever tasting on release, despite many previous releases' flirtation with perfection. 100% whole bunch. 14.9% alcohol, sealed under natural cork and wax.

96 POINTS

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

Raspberry jam, cherry, new leather and mint, sage leaf and spice. Plenty of grip and tannin, but also kind of overt in sweet blue and red fruit, just feels a little thinned by brandied alcohol, but does have impressive length, lavish tannin, and a whole lot of stuff packed in. 94+ Open for two days: Raspberry conserve and rosehip jelly, mint, vanilla and sweet spice. Lavish mouth-coating sandy/grainy tannin, something of a ferrous quality too, shows some warmth but has such concentration and flavour that the impact of that is reduced. Sizzled sage and spicy sausage, and orange rind bitterness on a finish of excellent length. It’s a wine that probably needs at least a decade in the cellar.

94 POINTS

Mike Bennie - The Wine Front

As per suggested serving from Dan Standish, I honoured the ideal of 24 hours of decant back to bottle and taste next day. Not what would happen in a restaurant, but I guess best practice from the winemaking hot seat, and of course doable at home. I did try a small glass of each wine on opening to get an idea of what was what at the time too. The reviews are based on the mix of that in some respects. Lamella for me was the least of all these stellar releases, that being said that’s a margins thing in some respects. It is the blockiest, sweeter/riper fruit spectrum expression from my glass, and less structured, with ripeness and a touch of breathy portiness in the mix. It’s obvious, and obviously really good, though lesser in tannin and structure than its stablemates. Whiffs of dark cherry, cola, liquorice, crumpled dried leaves, boot polish, young port and espresso. Inky to sniff on, inky to taste. A bolshy and bold flavour profile, muscular and robust, pulpy and plush, impressively concentrated and decidedly sweet fruited amongst pleasing aniseed bitterness, though some toffee and cherry cola echoes in the palate with each sip. Lip-smacking stuff, is the gist.