Nestled in the rich Southern McLaren Vale region, the Coriole Lloyd Reserve Shiraz 2013 is an exquisite embodiment of Australian excellence. This pre-eminent Shiraz, crafted by prominent winemaker Coriole Vineyards, charms with a bold, full-bodied profile encapsulating intense fruit flavours dappled with notes of savoury spice and dark chocolate. Each grape is attentively selected from the oldest vineyard plantings, dating back to 1919, ensuring a superior quality yield. The meticulous fermentation process in open-top vessels, followed by ageing in French oak barrels, bestow a distinguished depth and complexity that leaves a lingering palate impression.

Bearing the name of the Lloyd family, who established Coriole in 1967, the Coriole Lloyd Reserve Shiraz 2013 carries a legacy mirrored in its striking character and robust structure. Unquestionably, it's a testament to Coriole’s enduring commitment to create wines that captivate with their elegance and remarkable drinking pleasure.

Vinous (94)

Saturated ruby. A highly perfumed, spice-accented bouquet evokes ripe dark fruits, pipe tobacco, mocha and candied flowers. Palate-staining blueberry, cherry liqueur, licorice and fruitcake flavors show excellent depth as well as vibrancy. The floral and spice notes return on the impressively long, focused finish, which is framed by smooth, late-arriving tannins.

Halliday Wine Companion (94)

Sourced from the proprietary Lopresti vineyard, known as the 'Chinese Block'. Near Wilunga, this is a warmer zone. Hand picked and placed in drying crates to undergo appassimento; this elevates tannins while concentrating fruit in a shift of the phenolic makeup, imparting a firm, ferrous savouriness. Unabashedly big, yet far from jammy, as a welcome result. Asian spice, blood stone, bitter amaro and cherry pith, with a verdant echo of cabernet in the background.

Wine Spectator (92)

Compelling and aromatic, with details of palo santo, sandalwood and sarsaparilla and a core of chocolate-covered cherries, espresso and wild blackberry notes. The tannins are thick and concentrated, but integrated seamlessly, adding to the impact of this lovely wine. Drink now through 2036. 6,132 cases made, 3,892 cases imported.

Wine Advocate (94)

Mollydooker's 2018 Carnival of Love Shiraz is more red-fruited and structured than I expected, given the wine's stated 16% alcohol. Raspberries and cedar mark the nose, with hints of chocolate, espresso and baking spices. In the mouth, it's full-bodied, dense and powerful, with ripe but firm tannins supporting the bright berry flavors, then easing into a long, velvety and mouthwatering finish. It should drink well for around a decade, but if you're shy of tannins, you may want to wait another year or two before opening.

Wine Spectator (92)

Thick, with sink-your-teeth-into-them tannins and powerful, ripe blackberry, huckleberry and blueberry flavors that show aromatic accents of allspice, Earl Grey tea, vanilla bean, milk chocolate and dried violet on the finish. Drink now through 2036. 45,165 cases made, 32,950 cases imported

Wine Advocate (96)

The most dense and concentrated of the current Mollydooker offerings is the 2018 Velvet Glove Shiraz. Because of that, it's also among the most fruit-forward, with the oak elements of vanilla, mocha and cedar pushed into the background in favor of ripe raspberries and blackberries. Taut and focused for its size, this full-bodied effort is smooth and creamy textured on the palate, where the fruit glides into a long, velvety finish.

Wine Spectator (91)

Expressive and fragrant, a bold red with toffee, salted caramel and black walnut liqueur notes set against ripe plum, maraschino and black cherry notes. Details of cardamon and clove linger with plush tannins on the long, expressive finish. Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Drink now through 2035. 10,076 cases made, 7,193 cases imported.

Wine Advocate (96)

The 2016 Eclipse is 87% Grenache, 8% Graciano and 5% Shiraz, all off the McLaren Vale estate vineyard. As it almost seems to, it boasts gorgeous aromas of raspberries, accented by a range of herbs and spices that include notes of orange zest, bay leaf and rose petals. It's full-bodied, with assertive but silky tannins that should help preserve the wine's freshness as it ages. Although full-bodied, it handles its alcohol well, showing just a trace of warmth on the lingering finish.

Wine Advocate (99)

The 2005 Shiraz Reserve was sourced from a 45-year-old vineyard and aged for 18 months in American and French oak of various sizes. A saturated purple color, it presents an array of otherworldly scents including smoke, mineral, meat, game, bacon, and blueberry. Thick, rich, and voluptuous, this mouth-filling, full-bodied Shiraz is about as hedonistic as it gets. Although the wine is seamless, there is some tannin lurking under all the fruit which will permit 8-10 years of cellaring for those able to delay gratification. The finish is amazingly long and pure, seeming to never end. As usual, the Noon wines are benchmarks against which all others must be compared.

Wine Advocate (97)

Even more concentrated than the impressive 2014, the 2015 Shiraz Reserve is almost painfully intense—in a good sense. Dark berries, culinary herbs and roasted meat notes combine in a mouthwatering nose, which leads into a dense, creamy-textured palate. While most Noon wines can be drunk on release (as can this one, albeit in a soft-core S&M sort of way), I would suggest holding this one for a couple of years and drinking it over the next decade.

Wine Advocate (97)

This year, my favorite of the Noon wines is the 2018 Reserve Shiraz. Marked by aromas of mint, sage, bay leaf, cassis and blackberry, this is a full-bodied, rich wine that manages to combine size and intensity with impressive suppleness and length. And while it's undeniably sexy and immediately appealing from a purely hedonistic standpoint, there's enough going on to inspire repeated sampling, with cool herbal notes and peppery notes of salted licorice providing complex counterpoints to the ripe berry fruit.

Wine Advocate (98)

The single-vineyard Sorte O Soro had not been produced since 2016, and the 2019 Sorte O Soro is the next vintage after that. This plot has always shown additional elegance, freshness and salinity since he started vinifying it in 2004, because of the altitude (710 meters above sea level) and the north exposure to the Bibei Valley, where the old clone is planted on fine granite sand and quartz soils. Like As Sortes, this Sorte also fermented and matured with lees in new 500-liter French oak barrels for eight months. It has 14% alcohol with a pH of 3.12 and higher acidity (at 7.5 grams) than the rest of the 2019s. It feels very harmonious, elegant and nuanced with some creaminess, with notes of wet pollen and yellow flowers. The palate reflects the soil, with vibrant granite and very fine sand and electric quartz (saline), and it's also round and powerful from the clone that is planted in the vineyard. This vineyard is in the process of being organically and biodynamically certified. 2,240 bottles were filled in September 2020. I tasted the 2019s and 2020s from Rafa Palacios in Valdeorras. For him, these are two very good years. 2019 had a mild and dry winter and a rainy and cold spring that delayed budding, followed by a mild summer with fewer hours of sunshine, which meant a delay in the ripening process. Harvest was more than one month later than usual, and the grapes achieved very slow ripening and full development of aromas and flavors while keeping the acidity. The harvest started in October and finished in November. It's a beautiful, homogeneous vintage with very good wines. 2020 saw a moderately cool and rainy winter and a dry and cold spring that resulted in 20% less bunches than in 2019. The summer was also quite dry but, fortunately, not too hot. Given the low yields, maturation was accelerated, and the harvest began at the beginning of September for Louro and from September 25th for As Sortes. Given the scarce water, the plants had to work harder deep down into the soil, which marked the wines; the silica and quartz from the sandy soils of O Bolo shaped a saline identity and the wines achieved a lot of elegance and balance. It's a more heterogeneous vintage, and the higher-altitude vineyards behaved better. The 2020 O Soro is out of this world. He gave me a quick preview of the very cold 2021, a vin de garde vintage but a challenging year with a lot of rain. They are in the process of certifying their vineyards (organic and biodynamic), but they have some problems in the vineyards with neighbors who are not organic, so it will probably be faster for O Soro and Sorte Antiga.

Decanter (98)

Sampled from a vat, this is one of the best As Sortes I have ever tasted, comparable to the iconic 2011. It's a prodigy of subtleness and elegance. Everything is firmly delicate in this wine. Restrained aromas open up parsimoniously, with a steely structure like a great Burgundy, but with flinty acidity almost like Grosses Gewächs from Rheingau. Despite the fact that the sample was not yet bottled, the wine had no oak influence, just the indication that it had been aged, as top Godello must. Rafael Palacios is refining his work year after year, reaching the magic of the greatest wines. A top wine, and one to keep.

Halliday Wine Companion (96)

A beautiful grenache, clarity its watchword: colour, aroma, varietal expression and aftertaste. Perfumed red berries of every description flow through the light to medium-bodied palate where pomegranate is foremost in shaping mouthfeel and flavour. Irresistible now or in 10 years hence.

Halliday Wine Companion (99)

A block regenerated by the Pannells since they purchased it in '12, it produces small berries in small bunches of intensely flavoured grapes. Hand-picked, 10 days on skins, pressed to French puncheons for 19 months maturation. It is the only unblended wine so far made and sold under the Koomilya banner, 4560 bottles made. It is a wine of beauty, with effortless poise and flawless fruit that is medium to full-bodied at most. How long will it live? Try 40 years.

James Suckling (97)

An outstanding grenache from old bush vines in the Smart Vineyard, perched up on the Clarendon ridge line. This has an edge of white pepper and pomegranate with notes of bright raspberries and fresh leaves. This wine fuses elegance and power with a sleekly defined palate that carries real intensity in 2018. The structure is keenly tailored. Long and taut, red-fruit finish. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

Wine Advocate (92)

The 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon was 100% barrel-fermented and aged for 12 months in 75% new oak, 80% American, 20% French. Opaque purple-colored, it exhibits a fragrant, expressive perfume of toasty oak, vanilla, spice box, black currant, and blackberry liqueur. This is followed by a racy Cabernet, slightly lean, with intense black fruit flavors, good depth and concentration, and enough structure to support 8-10 years of development in the cellar.

Wine Advocate (95)

The 2015 O Diviso felt closed, more reticent, and seems more powerful, despite the fact they did a nonextractive vinification; they did nothing and let the wine ferment at its own pace. This matured in one 600-liter oak barrel, and this is the only red that has a slight note from the oak. There is also a relevant amount of Garnacha Tintorera, so the combination of a warm year, the small barrel and the varietal mix resulted in a more austere and backward wine that is going to require more time in bottle. The fruit is darker and the wine is more powerful than the 2014. It might evolve with time in bottle, because it certainly has the stuffing to do so, but today As Caborcas was singing, and I have to give it the edge. 895 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2016.

Halliday Wine Companion (96)

A full-bodied shiraz that reflects cunning winemaking. Whole-berry fermentation has put a rich gloss on the palate without overloading the tannin structure. The predominantly black berry fruit is shot through with licorice, spice and an airbrush of dark chocolate.

Halliday Wine Companion (97)

The qualitative apogee when it comes to grenache, rivalled by few and equalled only by Yangarra. Even better than the superb 2021. Sourced from the highest, coolest site in the Vale, the venerable Smart vineyard. Ironstone imparts a ferrous bite to pithy sour cherry, cranberry, campfire, pomegranate, tamarind and sandalwood notes with a grind of white pepper across a lattice of pin bone tannins, curtailing sweetness while promoting stunning length. This is excellent. Superb! Transparent and brimming with a sense of pinoté, like a mini Rayas. A great wine of the present as much as the future. Among Australia's very greatest reds. I don't score above 97, but this could be worth a point higher.

Halliday Wine Companion (97)

Planted in 1946 on a sand dune in the cooler, elevated northeast of McLaren Vale. Hand-picked and sorted in the winery, the fermentation is wild. It is a glorious example of grenache picked earlier than in the past, retaining all the freshness of red cherries/berries, spices starting to build, tannins beautifully shaped.