Clarendon Hills Astralis Syrah 2008 (1500ml)

99 / 100

Joe Czerwinski, The Wine Advocate

Picked before the heat and weighing in at a reasonable 14.5% alcohol, the 2008 Astralis Syrah (tasted from magnum) is singing. Showing no bricking at the rim, scents of cracked pepper, mint, bay leaf, thyme, lavender and blueberries pour out of the glass, adding meaty notes and hints of espresso and black olive with air. Full-bodied, creamy-textured and supple on the long finish, this wine shouldn't be missed. If you've got one, open it and see for yourself.

Clarendon Hills Astralis Syrah vineyard was discovered by Roman Bratasiuk in 1990. He didn’t have much in the way of winery resources in those days so he picked the vineyard by hand and stayed up that night crushing the fruit in a bucket with an empty Burgundy bottle. It was grassroots stuff and as rustic as you could imagine. But the wines were excellent and he sold out year on year and created a little winery that made small amounts of single vineyard expressions from very special old vine patches throughout Blewitt Springs, McLaren Vale. Across the first vintages 1990 to 1993 the wine was titled ‘Clarendon Hills Shiraz’ however in 1994 the wine was rebranded to Clarendon Hills Astralis Shiraz off the back of his belief this wine was out of this world. Astralis 1994 was in fact Australia’s first $100 bottle of wine and it was adorned in a black 360 ˚ label peppered with golden stars to emphasise the definition of Astralis “pertaining to the stars'”. It was a thing of beauty.