Want more bang for your buck? Try this spicy Shiraz, it drips with rich, ripe flavors while displaying elegance and balance not often found at this price. This is one hot pick from Australia, get it while its still around. Widely acclaimed for their Jim Barry Shiraz stable, The Lodge Hill Shiraz is the third in the company's armoury, which also includes The McRae Wood and the fabled The Armagh. The Lodge Hill is a steal for those wanting to become acquainted with the Barry's formidable Shiraz style. The 2001 vintage was a beauty for Shiraz in the Clare and the Lodge Hill vineyard delivered read more...superb fruit, so we kept it separate and decided to use it in launching this new label, said Peter Barry. The result certainly vindicates Dad's gamble in planting Shiraz in one of the Clare Valley's coolest locations. It's a rich, complex, fair-dinkum Shiraz with aromas of plums and dark cherries mixing with vanillin oak, followed by juicy, robust fruit with a touch of earthiness and fine-grained tannins on the palate. Dark and chewy. Dense with licorice-scented blackberry and dark plum flavors, without showing much weight. Flavors persisit beautifully, picking up a woody note as they linger. Drink now through 2012. -Wine Spectator Smart Buys    (hide)

Saturated bright ruby. Pungent, perfumed nose dominated by chocolate, espresso and mint. Superripe and thick but distinctly porty, with some greenness lurking beneath its wave of fruit. Impressively sweet and liqueur-like, conveying an impression of low acidity. I'd locate this in the "too much ain't enough" school. Finishes very rich, thick and long, but needs more verve. This X-treme wine might not make for civilized company at the dinner table. (Negociants USA, Napa CA

Rating: 3/5 - As reviewed by Decanter. Juicy, quite attractive nose, but not very Shiraz. Very good, sweet and full, shows Shiraz in the middle. Drink 2008-15.

Community Tasting Notes (average 93.8 pts. and median of 93 pts. in 6 notes)

Rating: 96/100 - As reviewed in Wine Advocate # 148 on Aug-03

Rating: 95/100 - As reviewed by Wine Spectator on 09/15/04

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