Ox Hardy Slate Shiraz 2022

96 POINTS

Shanteh Wale - The Vintage Journal

Made using the ancient slate fermenters plunged three times daily. A potent mix of blackberries, açaí and prune plums. Black Forest cake, sage and hemp leaf. Crushed clove and black cardamom. Sinewy tannins are toted by a long line of acidity. Its intensity of black fruit and exotic spice is layered and detailed. There is kelp and graphite too. Beautifully layered together and will carry on its personality long into the future. A labour of love that shows what true preservation of history can deliver. Drink now–2034.

96 POINTS

Aaron Brasher - The Real Review

Deep, dark plum in colour. Lifted aromas of mulberry, dark cherry, Asian spice, ironstone, anise and dried herbs. Youthful, bright, mouth-filling, dark fruited and with lovely purity and drive. There's power and poise here: it's lovely to drink now, but is built for the long haul.

95 POINTS

Marcus Ellis - Halliday Wine Companion

Fermented in the ancient Willunga slate fermenter that was revived some years back, this saw 16 months in older French oak. There’s a real elegance in the last two releases, both cool years, and this feels even more airy and open, poised and lightly framed. Blueberries, violets, nori, iodine, ground pepper and tart boysenberry, umeboshi, a lick of salt and anise pastille. It’s refined, transparent, absent of heft and invested in detail, the tannins softly caressing.

95 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2022 Slate Shiraz was presumably fermented in the old slate open-top fermenters from the original winery established in 1863. It's difficult to avoid the power of suggestion, however, and the wine expounds a mineral coolness on the nose that informs the tannins on the palate. This is pure and medium-bodied, with graphite, blueberry, clove, dark chocolate, raw cocoa, crushed granite, dried herbs and asphalt and even ozone/petrichor through the finish. A wholly lovely wine, it mainlines the silky exoticism that defines McLaren Vale Shiraz while also delivering this within an elegantly ductile framing. It's chalky and excellent. 14% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

93 POINTS

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

Slate, meaning massive slabs of slate mined from the Willunga Hills. And after 95 years of decay, they revived them. I dig it. Though I would not enjoy digging them out. I’m a lazy wine critic who doesn’t go in for manual labour. 10% new oak, the rest old. This is a rich and kind of rugged wine. Plenty of tannin, blackberry, a sage and ironstone perfume, a bit of clove and baking spice, suede leather in flavour and texture, a minor amount of warmth, earl grey tea perfume, a bit salty and meaty, with some grip and spice, and something of a smoked ham aftertaste. Good wine. Grainy, but wholesome and earthy.

93 POINTS

Angus Hughson - Vinous

The 2022 Shiraz Slate is a wine that creeps up on you rather than demands attention, revealing fruits of the forest, dark earth, a touch of violet and a lift of sweet oak. A solid base of flavor leads off with layers of licorice and dark cherry in a seductive, silky package. Sandy tannin accents provide just enough grip to hold a long finish.

92 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2022 Slate Shiraz is inky and dusty/fine/earthy, with a gentle meatiness on the nose. The palate is gravelly and finely wrought with graphite, with sweet marrow notes and licorice through the finish. It's a lovely wine. It's earthy without being rustic. 14% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.