Ranked #18 of 23 2005 Shiraz Viognier from Barossa Valley
85/100
3 Stars
Huon Hooke
Raisiny aromas, overripe and charmless. A big, clumsy wine with a touch of dead fruit - it's not a wine that invites another sip. It may have its admirers, but I'm not one of them. At a wine dinner with many bottles and many diners it remained largely undrunk, which is an indictment.
Tasted: 16/10/2014
Drink: N/A
94 Points James Halliday
Has all the expected vibrancy and complexity of flavour in this wine; rounded and velvety fruit sweetness (not residual sugar) backed by ripe tannins and just the right amount of oak. Drink to 2018.
Source: James Halliday. March, 2008
RP 98+ points: Torbreck?s flagship is the 2005 Run Rig, a 97% Shiraz cuvee sourced from 120 to 160 year old vines with 3% finished Viognier added before bottling. It spent 30 months in 60% new French oak. Opaque purple/black in color, it has a kinky, exotic bouquet of fresh road tar, smoke, lavender, black pepper, game, blueberry, and black raspberry. Full bodied and opulent on the palate, the wine is dense, packed, and unevolved. It will continue to open up over the next 10 12 years and drink well through 2040 in the style of a Chapoutier Hermitage. If it develops as I think it will, it will be a candidate for perfection down the road.
98+ points. Source: Robert Parker (Wine Advocate) February 2009 by Jay Miller