96 Points - James Suckling
This is the wine of this cooler vintage. The temperature ebbs, peripatetic at times, seem to have disadvantaged those varieties that ripen very late. Here, there are firm but sinuous tannins. A briny nose, demur yet brimming with intent. Dried black olive, pithy and chewy. Iodine, darker fruits, charcuterie, pimento and white pepper, ground across a long skein of freshness, melding with the ferrous and almost gritty salt-crusted tannins. Reminiscent of a good Cornas, this is fine, savory, mid-weighted syrah. Drinkable now, but best from 2027
96 Points - Gary Walsh
Dark cherry, red fruit, liquorice and lavender, plenty of spice, charcoal, a rosy perfume too. It’s medium to full-bodied, deep and meaty, olive tapenade, blue and black fruit, raspberry, orange zest, plenty of inky and ferrous tannin, with a dry and spicy finish of excellent length. Frankland River Shiraz is such a distinctive style, and this delivers it in spades.
95 Points - Wine Advocate
The 2022 Syrah brings together a beautiful confluence of a lovely vineyard and a great season. Aromatically, we see sweet balsamic, blackberry, licorice, forest fruits, tea, steel, iodine and alpine herbs. This is a super wine, and I haven't even tasted it yet. On the palate, the wine is fresh and powerful. The tannins are pronounced but chewy and enlivening, with blood orange, saffron, a hint of sandalwood and blackberry. This is a really wonderful wine here, with the classic Frankland River splay of ferruginous tannin, rust and blood. It's super. Decant it; it will only get better, more svelte
