Frankland Estate Isolation Ridge Syrah 2021

There’s a spring in the step of Isolation Ridge ’21 Syrah. It’s there in the brightness of its crimson-purple hues, the heady scent of Aussie flora, earth and red fruit, but a large part of its true personality is dictated by the lively injection of pepperiness. It shimmies, it bounces, it brings piquant notes and added spiciness. It’s quite delightful. Could this high-level spiciness be the reason for the name change from what used to be labelled Isolation Ridge Shiraz to Syrah, a few vintages back? The ‘21 definitely falls within what we might expect of Syrah: the medium-bodied weight, lifted aromatics and plush, ripe fruit combined with energetic spiciness. There are also some savoury notes that join with a gravelly tannin presence, completing what is a pretty impressive young red. There’s plenty to explore here.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.

Wine writer and critic