2021 Coates The Syrah

Awarded an MW of wine in 2020, winemaker Duane Coates is by his own admission, a 'heart over head' winemaker. Inclined to make wine from almost any interesting parcel of fruit made available to him, he tends to make accountants wince. For Duane, making great wine is not about business decisions; it’s about curiosity, passion, and a little bit of folly. His wines marry Australia’s richness of fruit with the savouriness and complexity of the old world.
Matured for 18 months in 20% new French oak. Impenetrable pitch black core with a deep dark red black tinged hue. Pronounced blackberry and liquorice top notes meld into black cherry, subtle dusty vanillin cedar, earthy dried herb and pepper scents. The medium to full bodied palate is flush with rich blackberry, liquorice and black cherry fruits which are complexed by scorched earth, vanillin cedar and peppered dried herb elements. Gorgeous fleshy mouthfeel with velvet like tannins leading into a long, ripe yet polished and highly refined conclusion.
Drink over the next 6-8 years.
Alc. 14%

Other Reviews....
This is fine, the clutch of reduction pressed ever so gently against a framework of oak, serving to infuse a sense of tension as much as a lattice of structure. Cooler climatic allusions of iodine, blue fruits, tapenade, salumi and violet. The drive, long and fresh, belying any sense of warm-climate origins. Little wonder given the top cru portions of Clarendon and Blewitt Springs fruit in the mix. Drink by 2030.
95 points
Ned Goodwin - James Halliday's Australian Wine Companion