The culmination of our pursuit to tirelessly perfect small-batch Shiraz making is here; meet our new-look Barossa Shiraz hero, Synonymous. Off the back of our recent trophy for Best Shiraz at the Royal Adelaide Wine Show, we felt the timing was right to introduce our most important Shiraz release to date. The new look packaging coincides with the best vintage yet, a product of the benchmark ideal ripening cool season 2021 vintage.
We hear all the time that Synonymous plays more like a wine twice its price thanks to the judicious fruit selection, careful yet minimalist winemaking and fastidious barrel selection - we taste through hundreds to select and make this delicious Shiraz.
It is undoubtedly our best bang-for-buck red wine!
Winemakers: Daniel Chaffey Hartwig + Huon Fechner + Theo Engela
Varietal: Shiraz
Region: Barossa
Alc/Vol: 14.5%
pH: 3.6
Acidity: 5.9
2021 vintage:
GOLD MEDAL + 95pts - at [news embargoed until October] ...World Wine Awards!!
SILVER MEDAL + 93pts - at 2025 Melbourne International Wine Competition
SILVER MEDAL - at 2023 Global Syrah Masters
93pts + 5 ⭐️ "This is richly fruited and enticing on the nose, displaying aromas of blackberry, smoked meat, dried herbs, and roasted hazelnut. The succulent palate shows excellent weight and ripe fruit flavours, wonderfully framed by finely pitched tannins, finishing persistent and flavoursome. At its best: now to 2033." - Sam Kim, Wine Orbit
92pts "A lot of pure Barossan bang for your buck here. Comforting ... familiar even, with its cascade of plush blood plum and summer berry fruits, deep spice, licorice, dark chocolate and earthen tones. Creamy, powdery tannins, a bright line and a tide of pure, exotically spiced plummy fruit on the finish makes the wine instantly endearing and definitely prompts another glass. Great value" - Dave Brookes, Halliday Wine Companion
92pts "Oh goodness, it’s just what you expect to smell and taste and not be disappointed. Plenty of dark/red-berry-plum and cherry fruit, licorice edges, ample choc wrapping with a ferrous spine tinged with earth. Sprinkled with baking spices and pink peppercorn. Suave and supple. Quality of fruit is evident, but it never loses focus of being inherently drinkable by having a bright flourish of live fruit. Tannins are a little loose knit, but still spreading and consistent. Simply a lovely wine." - Regan Drew, vinonotebook.com
2020
SILVER - 2022 Barossa Wine Show
SILVER - 2022 Syrah du Monde
SILVER - 2022 Decanter Wine Awards
SILVER - 2022 Sommeliers Choice Awards
SILVER + 91pts "Fruit from the northern Barossa, valley floor and the Eden Valley. Here's a great-value shiraz, flush with ripe fruit that sits at the lighter end of medium bodied. Dark and red plummy fruits, a splash of cherry and some red-fruited lift, a base of compact spice and chalky tannin along with wafts of chocolate, kirsch, earth and some mocha-like tones. Ticks all the boxes." - Dave Brookes, Halliday Wine Companion
91pts "Plush Barossa purple in hue. Has the hallmarks of what you need Barossa to be: choc/mocha and deep plum, cherry, blackberry with earthy ferrous ironstone providing some grounding. Fully flavoured, but not full on. Manages restraint and even a touch of elegance with grippy, chalky tannin driving through the finish. Nothing complex but classily put together and dangerously drinkable." - Regan Drew, Vino Notebook
90pts "Deep ruby colour with purple tints. The nose offers mulberry, mocha and ironstone, all of which show as power flavours on the palate. There's a fleshy character to the fruit without being too much and the tannins offer a good focus and drive to the finish. Very approachable now and will develop in time too." - Stuart Knox, The Real Review
90pts "Aromas of mixed peppercorns, currants, blackberries and rosemary. Very clean, youthful and peppery with a medium body and creamy tannins. Fresh finish." - James Suckling
2019
91pts "Deep, rich plum, dark cherry, black peppercorn, a fresh turned earthiness and dark chocolate kiss. Opulent and fleshy with good tannin structure" - Regan Drew, Wine Words
91pts "Barossa shiraz, warm and rich. There’s lots of flavour and lots of alcohol here. Blackberry jam, peppercorns, black earth and asphalt flavours with some brighter redcurrant-like notes and a general softness to the mouthfeel. This will satisfy." - Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
91/100 "Aromas of dark cherry, liqueured chocolates, dried herbs and spice. The flavours are all deep and dark with a juicy, fleshy roundness, plenty of generosity and just the right amount of tannin to tighten up the opulent fruit. A very enjoyable and drinkable wine" - Aaron Brasher, The Real Review
2018
Silver Medal - 2020 Barossa Wine Show
2017
91pts "Eucalypt strikes from the outset though it brings raspberry and sweet plum with it. There’s a clovey, almost graphite-like note here too. This is a soft, supple, well-shaped shiraz, just complex enough and essentially easy to like." - The Wine Front
2016
90/100 "Deep, dense red/purple colour, with a slightly meaty reductive note on the nose, which clears with airing to reveal red fruit and spicy high-notes. The palate is straightforward and firm, intense and tight, with some firmness and grip, as well as length. Slighty rustic, but very good." - Huon Hooke, The Real Review
93pts "Sourced from low-yielding vineyards throughout the zone including 17% from Eden Valley. New and seasoned French and American oak. Contemporary Barossa shiraz, expertly done. Bright, lifted berry and plum fruit in the bouquet, and a gentle, tarry earthiness to convey a sense of place. Softly textured, juicy and flavoursome, bouyant and fresh. Ticks every box" - Steven Creber, Halliday Wine Companion
90/100 "Deep, dense red/purple colour, with a slightly meaty reductive note on the nose, which clears with airing to reveal red fruit and spicy high-notes. The palate is straightforward and firm, intense and tight, with some firmness and grip, as well as length. Slighty rustic, but very good." - Huon Hooke , Halliday Wine Companion
Gold Medal and Food Match Trophy "An impressed Charlie Carter of Ten Green Bottles described ‘cassis and menthol notes on the nose, leading to more cassis dominating the palate, with some nice gamey character coming through on the finish, which has notes of black tea, menthol and liquorice’. The River Cafe’s Mattia Mazzi, meanwhile, enjoyed notes of ‘tobacco, as well as sweet-and-savoury fruit compote’, finding it to have ‘good concentration and balance’." - Sommelier Wine Awards UK 2019
"Wine of the Year" Gastro Pub category - Sommelier Wine Awards 2019
2015
93/100 "Sourced from low-yielding vineyards throughout the zone including 17% from Eden Valley. New and seasoned French and American oak. Contemporary Barossa shiraz, expertly done. Bright, lifted berry and plum fruit in the bouquet, and a gentle, tarry earthiness to convey a sense of place. Softly textured, juicy and flavoursome, buoyant and fresh. Ticks every box." - Steven Creber, Halliday
92/100 "Deep red/purple colour with a voluminous dark berry aroma, invoking black plum and herbs tinged with aniseed. The wine is full-bodied and loaded with fruit sweetness, masses of drying tannins and a slight grittiness. This is classic Barossa and a real contrast to this maker's more elegant wines from Eden Valley. (Northern Barossa, Barossa Valley floor & Eden Valley)" - Huon Hooke, The Real Review
90/100 "Deep red/purple colour; the aromas and flavours are dense and ripe, concentrated, fleshy and smooth, soft and easygoing, but also intense and driving. It's a wine of up-front appeal with fine, dry, sandy tannins and a long palate. There is lush fruit and ripe sweetness balancing the tannins. Worthy stuff." - Huon Hooke, The Real Review
93/00 "Volume of licorice, asphalt and raspberry jam flavour. This wine pours it on. It remains fresh and lively but it whacks the flavour at you. Firmish tannin to close. A full-bodied red, done well." - Campbell Mattinson, Halliday
