2024 Swinney Syrah

96 POINTS

Ken Gargett - Winepilot

The fruit here hails from both their Powderbark and Wilson’s Pool Vineyards and is a mix of clones and massale selection. 28% whole bunches, wild yeasts and eleven months in larger format French oak, 8% of which is new. The colour is a gleaming purple. The nose exhibits notes of leather, spices, herbs, cloves, aniseed, tapenade, mulberries and cranberries. Gorgeous texture which gives the wine the impression that one is drinking silk. There are the finest satiny tannins, and lots of them. Excellent balance, incredible length and impressive persistence, all combine to make this an absolutely superb Frankland River Syrah. Enjoy over the next 12 years.

95 POINTS

Ray Jordan

The colour is striking—deep red and almost opaque in parts. This wine comes from the Wilson's Pool and Powderbark Vineyards from vertically trellised syrah vines. The combination of Massale selection syrah and the more recently added clones 470 and 171 has introduced new characters and complexity to what was already an impressive wine. Whole bunches and wild fermentation bring texture and structure, complemented by spice that sits comfortably with the plush, darker fruit. The oak–fruit balance is superb, with fine-grained large-format French oak (just 8% new) and time on yeast lees completing the wine in a polished way.

95 POINTS

Mike Bennie - Halliday Wine Companion

Twelve days on skins, a touch of new oak (8%), wild fermented; just under a third is whole bunches. This is a sinewy, taut, textural, medium-weight red wine laden with green herbs and spice, chewy cranberry, dark cherry, mulberry and a good shake of clove spice. A bit of ginger biscuit, some cinnamon bark notes, a curious quinine element, too; pleasingly bitter and spicy, again. Tannins find an emery board texture, a good chomp and chew, and stretch the wine long. This feels very 'syrah' all up. It's beautifully composed, albeit a touch on edge in youth, but it will settle wonderfully.

95 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2024 Syrah has a perfume like pressed flowers and crushed rocks, but it's black and intense, with flavors of graphite and black pepper, roasted meat crust, beetroot and ironstone. The fruit on the palate has blackberry and mulberry, sweet licorice and blood plum. A beautiful wine here, it feels impervious to the heat of the season. 14% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

95 POINTS

Cyndal Petty - Winepilot

Bouncy, fragrant and smart — it smells deliciously raw and pure, almost pheromonal. Raw cacao powder, blackcurrant and raspberry liquorice — the latter likely from the 28% whole-bunch. It’s giving “maybe I should just date wine” energy. The palate is mid-weighted (hence Syrah), but with plenty of structure and give. Deep black fruits, crushed ironstone and a lick of pencil lead add depth to the palate. Swinney prides itself on growing the best possible grapes and letting them lead the wine — you can see that here… And for under $50, it’s truly delicious!

94 POINTS

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

You say Syrah, I say Shiraz. I like the Australian names for grape varieties grown here. This is meaty, peppery, blackcurrant and blackberry, quite some exotic spice, fennel salami, liquorice, black olives. It’s medium-bodied, all salumi and pepper, black olive, a nutty hazelnut skin feel to tannin, a sappy umami thing and blood orange tang to acidity, sooty and nutty and spicy to close. Something of a violet and gum leaf perfume too. Good wine. Kind of salty, but very nice.

91 POINTS

Angus Hughson - Vinous

The 2024 Syrah Frankland River is compact and heavyset, offering layers of licorice, new leather and blackberry aromas. Supple textures and powdery tannins underpin ironstone and dark chocolate flavors, while subtle cola and gravel emerge over a sinewy finish. Well pitched, this wine needs a couple of years to flesh out.