2021 Sigurd Reserve Syrah Barossa Valley

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Modern Barossa is perhaps an abused term, but it couldn’t be more apt here. A wine of impeccable elegance and balance, but with weight and earthy, spicy intent.

Producer
Sigurd
Region

Barossa Valley
RRP

$72
Vintage

2021
Variety/Varieties

Shiraz (Syrah)
Alc./Vol.

14.2%

From the great 2021 vintage, this is one of a trio of inaugural reserve releases from Sigurd, coming off a block of shiraz farmed by Dan Graham near Williamstown.

Tasting note

There’s a brooding quality to this that is at once Barossa and simultaneously something refreshingly new. There’s depth, so much of it, and an earthy, ferrous growl, but there’s also a transparency, a lightness of expression, a suppleness. This has spent 16 months in 2-year-old oak, which has eased the edges of the wine, and it sits in that Barossa vein of plushness, but it has weight without heaviness, succulent fruit without overt sweetness, and spice that dips into fennel seed and star anise. It’s a modern Barossa expression that feels old but also utterly new.

Themes of this wine

Syrah/shiraz

Shiraz dominates the Australian wine industry, accounting for nearly a third of this country’s vines. The grape’s traditional home is in France’s Northern Rhône, with wines that combine elegance and power, while Australia is perhaps best known for the muscular styles from warmer areas. Today, drinkers of Australian shiraz are spoilt for choice with expressions ranging from the elegant and spicy to the monumental.

Barossa

The Barossa is arguably Australia’s most revered wine region. It dwarfs many other fine wine regions for scale, while firmly maintaining a quality profile, with its distinctive style and character recognised worldwide. It is dripping in history, has far and away the largest resource of old and ancient vines in the country, and fifth- and sixth-generation growers and makers proliferate. It is fair to call it the cornerstone of Australian wine. It is the home of powerful red wines, established names making established styles, but there are also makers finding new meaning in the territory.

Home > Wines We Love > 2021 Sigurd Reserve Semillon

The suite of reserve wines is a welcome addition to the Sigurd portfolio, with this elevating a variety so infrequently celebrated in the Barossa. Mineral, spicy and laced with umami on a bed of citrus, this is textural, chewy and so engagingly savoury and complex.

Producer
Sigurd
Region

Barossa Valley
RRP

$72
Vintage

2021
Variety/Varieties

Semillon
Alc./Vol.

12.1%

The suite of reserve wines is a welcome addition to the Sigurd portfolio, with this elevating a variety so infrequently celebrated in the Barossa. This is from the sandy soils of Vine Vale and plants that clocked in at around 110 years at the time of picking. Mineral, spicy and laced with umami on a bed of citrus, this is textural, chewy and so engagingly savoury and complex.

Tasting note

A deep lemony gold hue, no doubt from the fermentation and year-long maturation in 4-year-old barrels. There’s plenty of flavour on the nose, but the pedal is on savouriness and off primary fruit, with smoky-umami-malty notes, lanolin, anise, carraway-flecked rye bread, pumpernickel and green chilli seeds across a lemon-fruited backdrop. There’s ample texture, a gravelly mineral character and gentle but meaningfully present line of acidity enhanced by a dry clutch of phenolics.

Themes of this wine

Semillon

In league with sauvignon blanc and muscadelle, semillon is responsible for the dry whites of Bordeaux, as well as the great sweet wines of Sauternes, Barsac et al. In Australia, semillon found its own unique niche in the Hunter Valley, making low alcohol, super-bright and zippy wines that age for decades, while in Margaret River it is more often than not blended with sauvignon blanc to make the region’s signature aromatic white.

2021 Sigurd Reserve Syrah Barossa Valley

From the great 2021 vintage, this is one of a trio of inaugural reserve releases from Sigurd, coming off a block of shiraz farmed by Dan Graham near Williamstown.

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Syrah/shiraz

Barossa

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Semillon

Barossa

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