Winemakers in the 2024 YGOW Awards Top 50 demonstrate the gentler shades of shiraz through wines from Agricola, Cape Jaffa Wines, Little Frances, Juliard, Honky Chateau, Guthrie, Alkimi and Mise En Place.
Pepper spice and menthol melds with blackberry, subtle ash, and salted plum. Lovely savouriness kept in check with the fruit bringing complexity and interest. The palate is intense and dark fruit, though with lift and elegance. Black pepper, menthol, blackberry and black plum sit within stacked chalky tannins and a latent lick of freshening acid. A rhone-like Shiraz of complexity, texture and precision.
Dark and brooding. This opens with blood plum, brown spice, menthol, subtle smoke, and a ferrous note. It’s complex and intriguing. The palate is fulsome and sweet fruited. Plum, blackberry, pepper, menthol, iron and bacon fat. The tannins are chewy and stacked, commanding the mouth before the fruit catches up thanks to cleansing acid.
Lifted white pepper, blackberry, game meat and subtle menthol. Classic cool climate Syrah aromas at play here, and in lovely balance. The palate is medium bodied and lithe with a cool feel. Black pepper, blackberry, and seared meat permeate the palate, though again with lift, brightness, and buoyancy. Chalky tannins hold sway, and intermingle with clean acidity to carry the black fruits and savoury spice long through the palate. Fresh, bright, and melding savouriness with fruit beautifully.
Blueberry pie, black berry, gentle pepper spice on the nose, followed by baking spices and red plum. The palate is packed with plush fruit and supporting spice much akin to the nose. Black and blue fruits meld with spice again, all of which is pulled into line by a vein of chewy, sinewy tannins to a gentle close.
Punch blackberry leaps out of the glass initially, followed by firm wafting of menthol, black pepper, au jus and dried cranberry. A swirl of the glass brings it all together, melding the fruit and savoury. The palate is medium bodied with lifted, detailed fruit bringing a buoyant and bright feel. Red liquorice leads the charge, followed by pepper spice, and cranberry. Fine, detailed, lithe. A wonderful Rhone-like expression of cool climate syrah.
Open knit aromas of plum, ripe red currant, pepper spice, game meat. It’s attractively lifted and bright, drawing you to taste . The palate is medium bodied, soft, and plush. Baked red plum, red currant, pepper spice, game meat permeate the palate with aplomb. A strong line of tangy plum-laced acidity carries length through the palate along with integrated fine-grained tannins. The finish is juicy, fresh and moreish.
Blueberry pie and red plum meld with black pepper spice on the nose, followed by a glimmer of red liquorice and a nuance of brick dust. The palate is fulsome and and forward – blueberry, pepper, and a gamey nuance. There’s delicate structure in support thanks to a vein of fine tannins and cooling, freshening acidity.
Red currants and red plum are to the fore, with slight layers of black pepper and lovely liquorice spice, and an earthen quality. Teetering around medium weight, there’s a good grip from dusty tannins, with a nice flow and feel to the wine here.
A gorgeous melding of blackberry and black pepper spice off the bat, followed by aus jus, seared meat, and subtle tilled earth. This is elegant and intense at one, with lovely balance and poise. The palate is medium bodied and wonderfully intense – black pepper, blackberry, red plum, peppered meat, and earth. The tannins are chalky, integrated, working with clean acidity to bring it all to a clean, fresh and long finish. A wonderful cool climate style, packed with flavour, intensity and complexity.
The riesling landscape has become somewhat richer in the last little while, with a wealth of wines that combine electric acidity with balancing deposits of sugar. It’s a very exciting category, one that produces wines that are seductive in their youth and can age astonishingly well, as well as pairing with myriad cuisines.
There is no doubt that pinot noir has not only firmly entrenched itself in the Australian wine drinking psyche, but it is also starting to build distinct regional and sub-regional identities guided by the hands of confident makers, such as the the 2024 YGOW Awards Top 50, which features Marco Lubiana, Aunt Alice, Jean Bouteille, Tillie J, Musical Folk, Mac Forbes, Port Phillip Estate, J & S Fielke, Musical Folk, Port Phillip Estate, Portsea Estate, XO Wine Co., Turon, Scanlon and Utzinger Wines.
Wine, like most things, falls victim to the whims of fashion. One minute a grape variety is riding a seemingly unstoppable wave of success, and the next minute growers can’t give the fruit away. Some winemakers are dusting off the classic varieties and giving them a makeover, either in big swings away from the familiar path or with subtle reinventions. The 2022 Young Gun of Wine Awards features LS Merchants, Sabi Wabi, Entropy, Lauren Langfield, White Gate and Patrick of Coonawarra, whose wines tell this story.
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