Bekkers McLaren Vale Clarendon Syrah 2023
- 97
- $120
- Drink by: 2025-2040
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The first single vineyard bottling from the precious Clarendon site first planted in the 1840s. This did not come at a simple price tag with the couple pouring their time, labour, blood, sweat and tears into restoring it. Steep, cool and roots buried in clay and schist soils. Luckily after all the effort, the site seems very willing to tell its tale in the glass. Illawarra plum skin, black cherries and torn banksia leaf. There is carob and coffee grinds, turned grey earth and blueberries. A sandy, wet stone like minerality, followed by the echo of concentrated black fruit. The coolness of the site shows in its aerial arcs of acidity, making for a medium bodied drink full of freshness and wonder. Not only is it impossible to put down, the flexible shape of the wine keeps you guessing and completely enamoured. Tannins slowly attach like magnets making for quite a solid fabric of texture. This will age slowly over the next 12-15 years. A really special wine and spectacular for its inaugural release.
Shanteh cut her teeth at Sydney’s Award-Winning Quay restaurant where she worked for over a decade and was Head Sommelier from 2018 till 2022. She has been nominated for the Good Food Guide Sommelier of the Year award on three occasions and claims that her experience as a Len Evans scholar as one of the highlights of her career. Shanteh hosts her own weekly podcast ‘Over A Glass’ with the Deep in the Weeds Network and spends her time writing for various publications and judging at numerous wine shows across the country.
