Tasting Notes
JancisRobinson.com 17.5
From a screwcapped half-bottle. Mid crimson. Heady, rich-but-savoury nose. If someone told me this was Tempranillo with its savoury tobacco-leaf flavours, I could have believed it. Very far from the super-sweet, super-alcoholic Shiraz of some Barossa valley floor producers, this has real lift and refreshment. Some salty leather notes along with the cassis and a hint of the French and American oak it was aged in. A very successful Armagh. The Barrys must be very proud of this wine in which fruit trumps camphor – but if I had a sore throat I certainly wouldn’t say no. Already perfectly broachable.
Anticipated maturity: 2020-2030
Robert Parker 96
The 2016 The Armagh Shiraz, tasted in a lineup of four vintages (2016 – 2019), has the highest alcohol of the lot (14.2% alcohol) and remains perfectly in balance. These are not the big wines that we may expect them to be. The vintage variation across them is subtle but evident, revealing the beauty of this single vineyard, planted in 1968. This 2016 wine is now starting to settle into its first drinking window and speaks of an array of deli meats, forest berries, exotic spice and even a hint of red curry paste. This has all the complexity you could want, and in terms of tannins: texture, density and rippling muscles. Sensational stuff. Drink it over the next two decades.
Anticipated maturity: 2022-2042
