Great Wines at Great Prices
£49.95
Street Wines View:
75cl bottle.
Vegan.
Tasted with Nick Keukenmeester- London 2024. Ben Glaetzer gave me good advice a few years back. That was to buy as much 2018 vintage Glaetzer as I could. Today Nick advised to buy the 2021 as its as good as 2018. These chaps make some of the best wines in the world and still at sensible prices.
Tasting Notes
Colour: Deep purple upon release, but will evolve to a rich, dark garnet red over time in bottle.
Aroma: Dark cherry and blackberry notes are offset by hints of black pepper and a well stocked spice rack.
Palate: Rich and enveloping and balanced on a razor’s edge between power and finesse. Multiple dark fruit notes saturate the palate, enhanced with graceful spice and herb notes. It will age for many years to come.
Good rainfall towards the end of Spring and cooler temperatures over the Summer led to excellent soil moisture and vine health over the growing period. La Nina did not bring rain to the Valley in late Summer or Autumn with rainfall being 40% below average. These mild and dry conditions were excellent for flowering, bud burst and veraison. As such, yields are much higher than the disappointingly small 2020 and quality is of a very high standard. The long “Indian Summer’ gave great ripeness and phenolic concentration.
Amon-Ra Shiraz is an iconic wine that epitomises Ben Glaetzer’s passion to create wines that are full flavoured, multi layered and intense but still elegant, stylish and finely balanced.
In Egyptian mythology, Amon-Ra is considered to be the king of all gods. The temple of Amon-Ra was believed to be the first temple to ever plant a monoculture vineyard to produce wine for the citizens of the temple.
The eye on front of the label is the all-seeing eye of Horus – a powerful Egyptian symbol of protection. It is represented as a figure with six parts, corresponding to what Egyptians regarded as the six senses; touch, taste, hearing, sight, smell and thought. Ben created Amon-Ra Shiraz to appeal to all these six senses.
Exceptional old vine fruit was sourced from the famed Ebenezer sub district at the northern tip of the Barossa Valley. Vine age 50—130 years old. Yield 2 tonnes per hectare.
Critic Reviews:
Robert Parker Wine Advocate 97 Points
The Amon-Ra is a wine that’s well known for its graceful aging capacity, and so, in a vintage like 2021 (long, cooler than the horrendously low-yielding and drought-addled 2020 and 2019 prior), the release is eagerly anticipated. The 2021 Amon-Ra Shiraz is complete, in a word. The purple and red berries in the mouth are fresh and supple, the flow of flavour across the tongue feels unbroken and svelte, and the aftertaste is padded by chewy, pliable tannins. This is a real pleasure, and not just now – it will be later, too. Erin Larkin, 2023 Wine Advocate Review, August 2023, Australia www.robertparker.com
James Halliday 96 points
Shiraz sourced from vines between 50 to 130 years of age in the renowned northern Barossa sub region of Ebenezer; 16 months in new French and American oak. A wine of impact and purity. Beautiful ripe black plum, cassis and black cherry fruits with hints of cedar, baking spices, dark chocolate, licorice, nutmeg, espresso, earth and graphite. Power and harmony writ large with cascading tannin, lacy acidity and great depth and concentration … I feel it needs one of those big, old Batman-style ‘KAPOW!!’ boxes for emphasis. It’s a cracker.
Ray Jordan 97 points
A wine that illustrates how traditional Barossa can be expressed in modern hands. It’s a Shiraz from 50 to 130 year old Ebenezer vines, revealing power and poise. Traditional open fermentation was adopted with hand plunging three times a day. Deep plum and minerally characters merge on the nose. A slightly cedary factor lifts with a dense dark chocolate and spicy plum. Chalky find tannins perfectly integrated combine to take a concentrated powerful palate to an effortlessly long finish.
Jeni Port 95 points
Ben Glaetzer unashamedly turns the volume up on Amon-Ra. The winemaker likes a full-blooded Barossa Shiraz and knows how to deliver it. No apologies. In the 2021 vintage, he has seasonal conditions – mild, dry with a long Indian summer thrown in – that fit his modus operandi and Amon-Ra style. Alcohol runs at 15%, the dense, dark purple colour is stain-worthy and high tone spice and woodsy oak play a prominent – and it must be stressed, positive – role. This is a traditional Barossa heartland kind of Shiraz, almost impenetrable, but with life and vitality. Vibrant, ripe blackberry, bramble, damson plum with heady fruitcake spice notes, liquorice block, leather and earth sit well entrenched at the heart of this wine, full-bodied and mouth-filling. Cedary, woodsy oak performs a big embrace of fruit, ably assisted by generous tannins. You know it’s crying out for more time in bottle. Be assured, it can deliver more. Why unfiltered? “To ensure minimal intervention with the wine’s natural characteristics,” is the answer from the winemaker. This is, nothing is removed by filtration. It remains tantalisingly whole.
Shanteh Wale 95 points
This is the cream of the crop and the wine that Ben hangs his hat on for full flavoured, multi-layered elegant and finely balanced Barossa Shiraz. Vine age is between 50-130 years from Ebenezer. I can liken the experience of this wine to unwrapping those mixed berry fruit roll ups as a child. The sticky chew and snap of intensely flavoured blackberry and raspberry that dreams are made of, but this is a grown-up dream. The experience lasts beyond when you’re finished drinking with cassia bark, black pepper and vanilla bean. It’s full of power and depth with tannins that intertwine between perky acidity and layer upon layer of fruit and spice. It’s savoury and detailed and just a total pleasure to drink. Pour this in your best glasses with someone that deserves a treat.