Alcohol: 15%
Grape(s): Shiraz
Localization: Barossa Valley, Barossa, South Australia, Australia
Tasting Notes: Lifted aromatics of black and blue fruits such as blackberry, blueberry compote, and milk chocolate, with graphite and mineral-like complexity from granite and schist soils in the Eden Valley. The full-bodied and silken textured mouthfeel exhibits fruit's plushness and mouth-coating ripe Shiraz tannins that are full yet soft. The oak is barely noticeable and will give way after a year or two in a bottle to the density and freshness of the fruit.
Food Pairing: Serve with steak frites, Texas BBQ ribs, or Char Siu pork.
96 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: The "The Struie" is 100% Shiraz from both the Barossa (57%) and the Eden Valley (43%), and it matured for 18 months in French oak (20% new). The proportion of Eden Valley inclusion is usually around 25%, but 2019 it was down to 10% due to the very low yields. So, this 2021 Struie is blue-fruited on the nose, with blueberry, licorice, black tea, crushed rocks, summer raspberry, layers of campfire embers, and clove. In many of the tasting notes from 2021, it might be that the wines outperform previous vintages. This is because the cool season was long, so great ripeness was achieved without the stress or impact of heat events and disease. It's a lovely, lovely year that has made wines with freshness and intensity. The tannins through the finish here are savory and fine and black.
The Domain: Torbreck, founded in 1994 by David Powell, is situated at Marananga on the western ridge of the Barossa. Since that time he has produced some of the world's finest 'Rhone varietal' wines, exclusively from Barossa fruit; this has been acknowledged by the wine press in Europe, America, and Australia. The overwhelming majority of his vines are dry-grown, nearly all are 80 - 125 years old and are tended and harvested by hand.
The wines have an extraordinary combination of power, intensity, complexity, and great finesse, and bearing in mind the age of the vines and the laughably low yields, no Torbreck wine could ever be accused of being heavy, cloying, or over-extracted.
