Region
Mclaren Vale
Grape
Shiraz
Tasting Notes
Medium to full red-purple; the bouquet is potent, with voluminous cherry/plum fruit and spicy vanilla oak. The rich, complex palate is expansive in every way – fruit, oak and tannins. All it needs is time.
-93 pts by James Halliday
The dense ruby/purple-colored 1997 Syrah Balmoral exhibits smoke, blackberry, licorice, and oak aromas, full body, sweet tannin, and a long finish. It is best consumed over the next 7-8 years.
-89 pts by Robert Parker
A more restrained, lighter-structured Balmoral, whose sweet and spicy cassis fruit is married with coffee, vanilla American oak into a supple, sappy wine of intensity and generosity. There’s a cooked element to the fruit, typical of the 1997 McLaren Vale vintage.
-90 pts by Jeremy Oliver
Smooth and velvety, opening up tremendously with exposure to air, becoming silky, deep and amazingly refined. Emphasizes pure plum and blueberry flavors, with delicate hints of exotic spice and vanilla echoing nicely on the harmonious finish. Drink now through 2003. 3,800 cases imported.
-92 pts by Wine Spectator