2021 Torbreck Run Rig

Produced from a blend of 98% Shiraz and 2% Viognier, Torbreck’s Run Rig is modelled on the Northern Rhone appellation of Cote Rotie’s wines. Fruit was sourced from the Lyndoch, Rowland Flat, Moppa, Ebenezer, Light Pass and Greenock districts of Barossa Valley with maturation taking place in a combination of new (50%) and older French barriques for a period of 30 months.
Ultra dense in colour featuring an impenetrable inky black heart along with an equally deep black dark red hue. Exotic and enormously potent the nose is almost overwhelmed by intoxicating aromas of ripe black cherry, liquorice, dark plum and fennel. Hints of smoky vanillin cedar, faint apricot and peppered earth notes lend further intrigue. Rich, voluptuous and totally bewitching, a tidal wave of seductive black cherry, liquorice and dark plum fruits saturate every corner of the palate. Boasting a surreal level of power and concentration it’s framed by a firm yet seamlessly integrated tannin structure. Fennel, earthy dark chocolate, subtlety toasted vanillin oak, traces of dried apricot and blackpepper characters endue across the back half. Concludes spectacularly long, deep and opulent.
Drink over the next 10-15 years.
Alc. 15%

Other Reviews…..
This is the wine that people seem to lose their minds over, and just between you and me, I do understand that. It's one of a handful of super sensational Shiraz Viognier from this great country, and the ability of this cuvée to speak so eloquently of both the Barossa and its harmonious varietals is impressive to say the least. So is, while we're discussing it, the density and volume of the wine. On the nose, the 2021 RunRig is savory and meaty, with charry oak at the fore, backed by black cherry, graphite, dried rose petals, red and purple fruit, flowers and black tea. There is both detail and density. On the palate, the wine is both silky and huge. It's momentous, long and complex. It's like the volume has been turned up in every possible way, and what I know of sound mixing is on show here; it's a loud mix, but all the elements are perfectly in balance. And ultimately, that's what's up. Like Nick Cave, it's got it all, and it does it with conviction and intellect. It's a great wine, from a great season. Bigger than perhaps ever before. 15% alcohol, sealed under natural cork. Drink 2024-2051.
98+ points
Erin Larkin – Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate

2021 RunRig will make you turn your head while you gawp in disbelief. This wine has something I have never seen in Runrig before – an immovable mountain of terroir, monolithically anchored in its core. Standing at the foot of this gargantuan flavour, I could not see the summit. There is so much ravishing Shiraz skin draped decorously around this totemic terroir it appears wholly demonic and fear-inducing. But the fruit notes are as refined and finely tuned as ever, providing the taster with a baffling counterpoint between the Dark Side and a Venetian dandy, resplendent in its filigree and finery. I cannot remember seeing two such opposing characters in one wine before, and every time I went back to the glass, there was more to admire, and these elements fuse and shape-shift into a glorious amalgam of sophistication and power. Of course, it deserves a perfect score. This wine is unique and uniquely stunning. I wish I could attend every opening of 2021 RunRig – oh, to be a fly on the wall, listening to the gasps of delight when people are lucky enough to taste this wine. (2030 – 2045)
20+/20
Matthew Jukes

Pour moi, since Ian Hongel took over the reigns at Torbreck, the house 'thumbprint' seems less percussive, the trademark Torbreck plushness remains, but subregion and site seem to have a little more light on it. The RunRig in a strong vintage is always much anticipated. Shiraz with 2% viognier, from across Torbreck's best sites, aged for 30 months in French oak (50% new). It's a dark-eyed, powerful release, with clove-studded blackberry and black plum fruits and deep, dark spices, cardamom, star anise, licorice, espresso, cedar, 'Old Jamaican' chocolate and earth. Thick-shouldered and meaty with layers of silty, fine tannin and a crème de cassis-like flow to the fruit as it powers off. Drink by 2043.
97 points
Dave Brookes - James Halliday's Australian Wine Companion