The 2016 Shiraz Reserve is a star, marrying hints of mint with dark chocolate, blackberries and black olives. Full-bodied and plush, it features a lovely velvety texture that persists right to the end of the long finish. Big, powerful and intense, it retains a sense of softness and elegance, driven by the fineness of the tannins and notions of red raspberries that appear on the finish. Drew Noon's wines are not for lovers of delicate, shy wines. Nor are they for those who favor straitjackets of acidity and restraint. They're unashamedly bold, often relatively high in alcohol and full of flavor. The word "hedonistic" even comes to mind. In some ways, they're the poster children for Parker haters, those folks who like to point fingers at certain wines and say things like, "It's overripe. It's too high in alcohol. It's too much. It'll never age." It's unfortunate, because Noon is a quiet, thoughtful man, one of Australia's few Masters of Wine to actually grow and make wine, and it's clear he has a vision for his wine that is based in his understanding of what the vineyards provide; he doesn't chase ripeness or extraction. To be fair, I think there has been some tempering of the extremes in Noon's winemaking over the years, but these wines remain big, flavorful and generous expressions of the South Australian regions in which they're grown. Noon doesn't own the Langhorne Creek vineyards that provide the fruit for his Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and Reserve Shiraz, but he has been working with the same grower for decades. The Eclipse, a Grenache-based blend, comes from his own property around the winery in McLaren Vale. Historically, it often surpasses 15% alcohol, yet checking in on a couple of older examples on my last trip, it was clear that the wine ages beautifully. Drink 2018 - 2028.
Source: Robert Parker.