Magill Estate Shiraz 2020
Penfolds
Magill Estate Shiraz 2020
Overview
Overview
The single-vineyard Magill Estate Shiraz is intrinsically linked to Penfolds beginnings. Sourced from the Magill vineyard on the edge of Adelaide’s eastern suburbs (just eight kilometres from the city’s CBD), fruit is crushed, fermented and matured on-site at the original winery, established in 1844. Magill Estate Shiraz, first produced in 1983, is an elegant, medium-weight style with velvety texture and fine tannins, matured in both French and American oak. It is a sleek, contemporary wine, yet crafted the original way: hand-picked, vinified in open fermenters and then basket pressed to complete fermentation in barrel.
| Varietal | Shiraz |
|---|---|
| Vintage | 2020 |
| Country | Australia |
| Volume | 750 mL |
| Closure | Cork |
| Alc/Vol | 14.5% |
| Peak Drinking | 2024 – 2040 |
Awards and Accolades
Awards and Accolades
| 98 Points | Erin Larkin, Robert Parkers Wine Advocate |
| 97 Points | Huon Hooke |
| 97 Points | Dave Brookes, Wine Companion |
| 96 Points | Nick Stock, JamesSuckling.com |
| 96 Points | Ken Gargett, The World of Fine Wine |
| 95 Points | Jeni Port |
| 95 Points | Tony Love |
| 94 Points | Tyson Stelzer |
| 94 Points | MaryAnn Worobiec, Wine Spectator |
Erin Larkin | Robert Parker Wine Advocate
"Every year I smell lavender in this glass, and I promptly forget, until the following year. So today, as I smell the 2020 Magill Estate Shiraz, I smell lavender, and it lifts the aromatic profile—Earl Grey tea, Chinese five spice, black fruit and graphite through the finish. This is a supremely elegant wine, a single-vineyard wine (the only one in the 2022 Collection). Open fermenters, basket pressed and barrel fermented. It's all done in situ at Magill. I love this wine; it has powdery tannins, pliable fruit and curvy shape. Gorgeous. Irresistible – 98 points."
Nick Stock | JamesSuckling.com
“This has a very rich and intense nose, with mulberries, red plums, blackberries and iodine, as well as wet dark stones, espresso and violets. The palate holds a very plush, smoothly polished and quite linear shape, bathed in ripe blackberry and plum fruit flavors. So long and polished. Single vineyard. Drink over the next decade or more.”- 96 points
MaryAnn Worobiec | Wine Spectator
“Wonderfully expressive, with toothsome and fleshy ripe plum, huckleberry and wild blackberry flavors. Delivers details of bittersweet chocolate, espresso, white pepper and dried rosemary that linger on the long, expressive finish. Drink now through 2033. —M.W.”
Taste Description
Taste Description
Nose
Undeniably a wine of its place, a pure expression of the unique terroir of Magill Estate. A triangulation of Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale and the Barossa Valley: aromatically, a warp and weft suggestive of all three regions, yet the finished tapestry is uniquely Magill. A swirl reveals signature blue fruits, lavender and liquored dark chocolate. Fresh green coffee beans. Almost concealed, iodine, ferrous metal, the smithy’s forge. Savoury, earthy umami layers beckon: olive tapenade, green tomato relish, black pepper, venison carpaccio.
Flavours and Palate
There is a wonderful purity to the palate... lineal, laser focussed. An assured wine, content for the fruit to do the talking, oak relegated to a cameo role. The ancient mottled red clay soils of Magill Estate deliver their signature fruit characters dried cranberries, succulent blackberry, mulberry conserve.
A suggestion of sweetness: breakfast pastries, vanillas slice, cola.
Herbs? Fresh sage, dried bay leaves, thyme flowers. Ligurian olives in Rosemary olive oil.
A gravelly minerality on the finish, taught. The tannins are super fine and long. A wonderful expression of this unique vineyard.
Viticulture Vintage & Winemaking
Viticulture Vintage & Winemaking
Vintage Conditions
Near-average winter rainfall and slightly reduced growing season rainfall resulted in close to average total rainfall for the year. Spring temperatures were below average, delaying the onset of budburst and flowering. Like the other regions in South Australia, Magill Estate experienced a hot December, with a high of 43.5°C recorded on the 20th of December. The effects of the hot weather on yield were significant. Conditions from January onwards were much milder, allowing the vines to fully ripen a smaller crop than usual from the 5.2 hectares on the estate. The oldest vines above the Grange cottage were hand-picked on the 3rd of March. The final fruit was harvested on the 11th of March from the younger plantings.
The Penfolds Team
Key to the success of Penfolds has been a lineage of visionary winemakers. There have only ever been four Chief Winemakers at the helm of Penfolds – Max Schubert, Don Ditter, John Duval and Peter Gago, each a custodian of a rich winemaking tradition that goes back for more than 170 years.
Our current Penfolds winemaking team has more than 100 years between them as Penfolds winemakers. They are constantly refining and improving their work, whilst honouring the winemaking techniques of their predecessors.