Bob Campbell MW (98)

Le Sol, one of the country's most respected syrah labels, cracked through the NZD $100 barrier with the 2013 vintage and has continued to adjust the price in a northerly direction. This is the first vintage that a small amount (20% ) of whole bunches has been used in the fermentation. Nicely perfumed and typically dense, rich syrah with a lovely texture and firm, rounded tannins. Powerful yet elegant wine with plum, berry and mixed spice flavours together with an interesting savoury edge

The Real Review (99)

Dense, intense and complex syrah that combines power and finesse. A deep, dark wine with a heady perfume and dark berry, plum, violet and pepper-spice flavours. Clearly a wine worth cellaring, although it is deliciously drinkable now.

The Real Review (97)

Deep, quite youthful red/purple colour. The bouquet is spotlessly clean, fresh and bright, showing classy oak and properly ripe fruit. The wine is concentrated, full-bodied and powerful, with density, great structure and superbly ripe fruit flavours. A majestic wine. It's a baby, and all it needs is a bit more time.

Decanter (96)

Family-owned winery Craggy Range was founded in 1998 in Hawke’s Bay, and the family has pursued a single-vineyard approach to winemaking. For this wine, grapes are grown on limestone-speckled stony soils in Martinborough. It is fermented in a mixture of oak and stainless steel followed by four months ageing in barrique. Roger Jones: A mellow, yellow wine with buttercups, green herbs and rosemary flowers, a silky purity and freshness. Stunning. Melanie Brown: The perfect collaboration of sweet fruit and vegetal aromas. Grapefruit, elderflower and sweet pea shoots, plus lively acid and purity galore. This is next-level elegant. Rebecca Palmer: Tart lemon-lime and whitecurrant notes with hint of spice. Silky texture, lifted by oak. Spice notes on the finish.

Halliday Wine Companion (98)

A bright crimson 73/20/7% blend of cabernet, merlot and franc, aged for an average of 17 months in French barriques (60% new). This was Cullen's greatest wine until the arrival of the Vanya Cabernet, and remains one of Australia's greatest cabernet blends, the only real competition coming from other Margaret River blends. The bouquet is perfumed, the palate fluid and graceful, notwithstanding the intensity of its cassis et al fruits which give the wine its awesome length, fine tannins its balance.

Halliday Wine Companion (98)

A cabernet-dominated (93%) blend, matured for 14 months in French barriques (67% new). Fluid grace, elegance personified, no compromise. Extraordinary attention to detail. From the Wilyabrup district, the heart of Margaret River cabernet blends.

Halliday Wine Companion (98)

81% cabernet sauvignon, 10% merlot, 6% cabernet franc, 3% malbec. Wild-fermented and matured for 18 months in French oak (40% new). The colour is faultless, as is the wine. It has waves of complexity, like one of Margaret River's surf breaks, changing shape as the luxuriant cassis swells on the mid-palate, then finishes with ripe, textured tannins as the wave goes on to crash on the shore. The overall ripeness is perfection.

James Suckling (99)

This is a superb edition of this revered, cabernet-based blend with such complete, seamless and elegant feel, yet there’s such depth of flavor, too. Aromas of fresh redcurrants, red and violet flowers, subtle spice, fresh earth, paper bark, fresh-picked thyme and sage, red berries and some cedary notes. The palate is stunning and has a brand of elegance with power that is found in only the greatest wines. Pristine mulberries, red plums, blueberries and red cherries sail through layers of fine tannin, into an unwaveringly long and vibrant finish. An exceptionally concentrated and convincing Diana Madeline release, this is one of their finest. A blend of 79% cabernet sauvignon, 10% merlot, 6% cabernet franc and 5% malbec. Delicious now, but his will bloom from 2028. Screw cap.

Halliday Wine Companion (98)

87% Cabernet sauvignon, with 7/3/2/1% merlot/cabernet franc/malbec/petit verdot. Matured for 15 months in barrique, 45% new. Cassis and red licorice on the nose, bay and salt bush, too. The palate is salty and fine with layers upon layers of spice and texture. The tannins are like finely textured gills, stacked as delicately as the folds in a mushroom. The length of flavour unfurls and extends across the palate, taking so long to fade that this entire tasting note is possible off one sip. The rest are just for pleasure. Drink it now, or in 40+ years from now… both will be possible.

Wine Advocate (95+)

The 2020 Diana Madeline hails from a vintage that perhaps we underestimate its significance, purely by virtue of the fact that we may be too close to it currently. Similar to the World War years, any wine made in 2020 was done so under trying conditions heretofore not experienced by the global community. Widespread lockdowns, the threat of a then-unknown virus weighing down upon us all, uncertainty rife and mobility greatly restricted, the wines of the 2020 vintage are a triumph in themselves. In Margaret River, the season was warm, dry and early, and it has yielded a tranche of structurally powerful wines, as this is. The tannins here feel firm, and they serve to encase the fruit rather than exist within it, as other Diana Madelines exhibit. It is perhaps a wine that needs more time, and it is certainly a historical vintage to collect—if not for us now, then for our children later. 13.1% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. Cullen Wines supplied the following technical details: The 2020 harvest dates included two moon-opposite-Saturn events and two full moons—one being a fruit day perigee and the other a moon-opposite-Saturn flower day—and took place from February 8 until March 10. The blend is 92% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 1% Malbec. Closed tanks, open fermenters, barrels and amphora were all used in the fermentation process, and the period of skin contact lasted from 10 to 99 days, depending on the batch of wine. This wine spent 13 months in 50% new oak in a mixture of barriques and puncheons, with some biodynamic oak featuring. No additions of yeast, acid or malolactic acid were made to this wine.

Halliday Wine Companion (95)

57% malbec, 37% petit verdot, 6% merlot, hand-picked on 11 Feb '17, when a total eclipse occurred, turning the moon red. Wild-fermented, matured for 9 months in French oak (10% new). It's a delectably juicy red berry wine with minimal interference from tannins, but will be no pushover as it ages.

Halliday Wine Companion (97)

The price of this wine reflects the piercing brilliance of the bouquet and, in particular, the palate. There is some residual sugar, but the acidity totally obscures it. If you buy it, keep some bottles for a minimum of 10 years, allowing the treasure trove of secondary flavours to be liberated.

The Real Review (96)

Intense chardonnay with lemon curd, oyster shell, ginger, struck flint, and attractively integrated spicy oak flavours. Youthful wine with bright, juicy acidity that brings energy while driving a lengthy finish, Classy chardonnay. Should develop well with bottle age.