2019 Eileen Hardy Shiraz
Market price
Buying options
Tasting notes
The well-composed 2019 Shiraz Eileen Hardy is a deep color in the glass. A muscular fruit core boasts aged meat, soy sauce, peat and mulberry fruit aromas, with a lining of spice all wrapped up in a blanket of new oak. The palate has a real density thanks to the hot and dry vintage. Waves of chocolatey flavors and supple tannins appear before a slightly pinched finish. It's close to its peak but will drink well for some time.
Critic scores
Average Score
Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate
Angus Hughson, Vinous
More reviews and scores
This is an old-school, widely collected wine in Australia, with a long history. The 2019 Eileen Hardy Shiraz is from a single place (McLaren Vale), albeit from two different vineyards: Upper Tintara (planted late 1800s) and a vineyard on the McLaren Flat. In the winery, the wine was wild fermented in open-top fermenters and matured in French oak (25% new) for 17 months. This has a sybaritic polish and density to the fruit, which is wholly supported by a firm framework of tannins in the mouth. This tells us how inchoate this wine is at this stage, and that it needs either decanting or patience as it opens up. The tannins through the finish are the key to this wine's success: chalky, instigating and masticating and very fine; they linger and trail over the palate.