"This is absolutely singing." - The Wine Companion, 96 points

A very stylish McLaren Vale Shiraz, with more of a mouth-watering, savoury character than one tends to find in a Shiraz from the warmer Barossa Valley further north, where Shiraz often puts on excess weight, whereas this has a sinewy feel. You could mistake it for a Cornas or a St Joseph, but a man once mistook his wife for a hat, so that's not particularly helpful. There's a sleek beauty to the black-skinned fruit, as if each berry had been brightly polished, with hints of pink peppercorn, tapenade and black ink adding intrigue and a glossy lick of cool minerality on the finish. 14% alc. Open-top fermented, with occasional punch-downs. Aged in old barriques. Drink now-2040.

Press reviews:

The Wine Companion: "From two blocks, the 1998 one on Holocene sand, and the 1975 plating on sand and ironstone. This was picked in two tranches, mid- and late-April, the latest for this wine. Fermented separately with 10 to 20% whole bunches; 10 months in French puncheons (14% new). This is absolutely singing at this early stage. Though darkly fruited, spicy and tarry, it’s a wine of poise, verve and refinement twinned with joyously engaging drinkability. The Rhône echoes are there, but it’s a wine of place. Dried black cherry, blue fruits, coal, graphite, salumi, white pepper, leather and dark rye, the palate lithe, sinewy, absent of overt fruit sweetness, the tannins detailed, complex and authentic of feel." 96 points

The Wine Advocate: "The 2022 Springs Hill Shiraz is inky black on the nose with blackberry, salted liquorice, clove, star anise, some arnica and raspberry. There is black cherry, too. In the mouth, the structural crosshatch of tannin casts a fine web over the fruit, lending the wine bounce and pliability. It's a lovely wine that was a little reductive upon opening. That has now evaporated with air. It is modern and good, spicy, black, concentrated but lithe and nimble. 14% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. Drink now-2038." 95 points