Hewitson The Mad Hatter Shiraz 2019

The Mad Hatter Shiraz spends much of its life in McLaren Vale – great to see this vintage in the Hewitson home base of the Barossa. 2019 was a warm and dry vintage, and this wine absolutely shows the generosity of the vintage yet has retained its trademark complexity. Deeply coloured, there are lashings of blueberry and mulberry fruits with a liberal dashing of exotic Szechuan pepper well matched to reserved oak – this wine is all about the fruit. The palate is then round and rich – sweet dark berry fruits fill the mouth with Barossa baked earth and terracotta flavours giving substance. There is a softness and generosity in this wine that says drink me, and now.

Angus Hughson

Founder at Winepilot

Angus is an award-winning wine writer and the Founder and Publisher of Winepilot, the Australian Editor for leading international publication VINOUS with Antonio Galloni based in New York City and the Co-Publisher of The Australian Ark with over 15 years of publishing, writing and judging experience.

Critic and publisher