Thistledown Where Eagles Dare Shiraz 2021

94 POINTS

Ned Goodwin - Halliday Wine Companion

Sourced from the Mengler Hill site in Eden Valley. Hand picked and fermented wild in a concrete egg, replete with 20% whole bunches, before transfer to French oak (20% new). A lather of lilac, lavender and aniseed defines a sumptuous nose. Purple fruits and rosewater, the palate, with a creep of tannin growing in gravitas across the back end as the wine opens. This is a delicious, full-weighted expression of considerable class and detail. Top of the totem in the region. The sole caveat, the burn across the throaty finish.

93 POINTS

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

In my opinion, Grenache is the main game for Thistledown. Their Shiraz is good, but their Grenache is next level. Dark cherry, plenty of biscuit spice and sweet oak, floral too, with a slightly grassy/wheatgerm character. It’s very purple tasting, blueberry and boysenberry pie, sage brushed and gently herbal, with a juicy finish of excellent length. A little bit saline with it, some crushed rock tannin as it goes. Maybe oak is a little too dominant as at now, though the fruit wins the day. Very good.

93 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2021 Where Eagles Dare Shiraz hails from the Mattschoss vineyard up in Eden Valley, and the wine is intially quite aromatically subdued. In the mouth, the fruit bursts from the docks, with licorice, blackberry, mulberry and black olive brine. The wine feels like it needs a really good decant to assist it in unfurling and giving up some of the characters we know it can have. The wine is elegant and fine yet grunty and forthright, driven by tannin and grit in the mouth. For all of these descriptors, the wine is actually elegant, but it just does so with some texture, which I like. Bottle number 0996 of 1775, 14.5% alcohol, sealed under Diam and wax.

92 POINTS

Angus Hughson - Vinous

From the famed Mattschoss vineyard in Eden Valley, this 2021 Shiraz Where Eagle's Dare Single Vineyard is currently reserved in part thanks to fermenting in a single concrete egg. It showcases an intriguing array of blackberry, wood smoke, aged meat and peppery spices. A compact palate follows - layers of fruit wound up in tight tannins - the finish quite long and structural. Super young and needs time to come together.