2021 Glaetzer Amon Ra Shiraz

100% Shiraz. ‘Amon-Ra’ is Ben’s iconic, multi-layered wine showing intense, full-bodied flavours perfectly balanced with elegance and restraint. It’s grown on 50 to 130-year-old vines from the Ebenezer vineyard on free draining soil (sand over limestone). This makes for really concentrated fruit with very small berries. This yield was 2 tonnes per hectare. It was fermented in 1 and 2 tonne open fermenters and hand-plunged 3 times daily. The wine was matured for 16 months in 100% new oak hogshead barrels (95% French oak, 5% American oak to add a bit of spice). But essentially, Ben has let the vineyard do the work, letting the flavours of the grapes show through the wine.  
 

The wine has aromas of dark cherry, blackberry and hints of black pepper and a well-stocked spice rack. The palate is rich and enveloping, balanced on a razor’s edge between power and finesse. This will age for many years to come.  – Glaetzer

A deep and concentrated colour of purple and dark red gives a real sense of generosity of this wine and that we are dealing with something quite serious. Stacks of aromatics jump from the glass with dark cassis, dark chocolate, turned earth and spice for days. This wine can’t just be described in one quick sip and taste as it shows more and more as it layers out with time in the glass and decanter.  Full and powerful in the mouth there is fruit, its bright and spicy with black cherry anise and plum all showing wafts and glimmers. Ripe and noticeable tannin firms the wine with a structured finish that is savoury and moreish, oak is here but it’s not front and centre simply and great component to this wine and helps that tannin drive and shape. Drink now with friends with big glasses, decanters and bountiful steaks & frites, but this will last for a very long time and dare to think it may get better – if it can. Mark Williamson, CellarHand

Shiraz sourced from vines between 50 to 130 years of age in the renowned northern Barossa subregion of Ebenezer; 16 months in new French and American oak. A wine of impact and purity. Beautiful ripe black plum, cassis and black cherry fruits with hints of cedar, baking spices, dark chocolate, licorice, nutmeg, espresso, earth and graphite. Power and harmony writ large with cascading tannin, lacy acidity and great depth and concentration … I feel it needs one of those big, old Batman-style ‘KAPOW!!’ boxes for emphasis. It’s a cracker. 96 points. Dave Brooks, Halliday Wine Companion July 2023

Ben Glaetzer unashamedly turns the volume up on Amon-Ra. The winemaker likes a full-blooded Barossa Shiraz and knows how to deliver it. No apologies. In the 2021 vintage, he has seasonal conditions – mild, dry with a long Indian summer thrown in – that fit his modus operandi and Amon-Ra style. Alcohol runs at 15%, the dense, dark purple colour is stain-worthy and high tone spice and woodsy oak play a prominent – and it must be stressed, positive – role. This is a traditional Barossa heartland kind of Shiraz, almost impenetrable, but with life and vitality. Vibrant, ripe blackberry, bramble, damson plum with heady fruitcake spice notes, licorice block, leather and earth sit well entrenched at the heart of this wine, full-bodied and mouth-filling. Cedary, woodsy oak performs a big embrace of fruit, ably assisted by generous tannins. You know it’s crying out for more time in bottle. Be assured, it can deliver more. Why unfiltered? “To ensure minimal intervention with the wine’s natural characteristics,” is the answer from the winemaker. This is, nothing is removed by filtration. It remains tantalisingly whole. 95 points. Jeni Port, Wine Pilot 2023