Awards and Accolades

96 Points - Chris Shanahan, Good Food
"Winemakers regularly "fine" red wines using various agents to remove hard tannins. But bottle age remains the greatest fining agent of all for a high-quality red like McNicol. Released at nine years' age, it reveals the wonderful transformation time brings. Born deep, burly and crimson-rimmed, it's now a shade lighter in colour and ruby red at the meniscus. Deep, sweet flavours retain remnants of the original fruit, but tinged with the earthy characters of bottle age. Silk-smooth tannins add to the drinking pleasure of a distinguished, full-bodied but elegant red. Forty-five dollars seems a modest price indeed for a perfectly cellared Clare shiraz of this dimension."

94 Points - Campbell Mattinson, Australian Wine Companion
"It would have been a tough guy in its youth but it's just started to soften with age. Leather and blackcurrant notes lead the way with resiny vanillin oak adding sheen. Fists of tannin flex their muscle almost the entire length of the palate. Needless to say, there's a lot of sweet fruit and oak flavour here."

2005 Vintage: 96 Points - James Halliday, Australian Wine Companion
"Healthy red-purple; has developed slowly but surely over the past eight years, and is approaching the point where it will enter a long plateau of maximum expression. The bouquet is complex, but still with a fresh display of plum fruit; the palate adds nuances of spice and oak, but plum is the key to the wine, supported as it is by fine tannins. Lovely wine in every respect."

From the Winery

Mitchell Winery was established in 1975 by Jane and Andrew Mitchell. The entire range of Mitchell Wines receives multiple accolades every year. Highlights have been the Penguin Wine of the Year in 2003, a consistent 5 star rating in James Halliday's Wine Companion and inclusion in the Financial Times Top 20 Wines of the World and regular Top 100 listings all endorse the Mitchell's choice of region and variety and is reward for their long-term commitment to their wines and the region of the Clare Valley, South Australia.

Now entering its optimum drinking period, this wine is elegant and classy. The primary fruit flavours of youth have given way to the more complex aromas and tastes of maturity. From an excellent Clare Valley vintage, the wine combines both richness and refinement. You can drink it now or allow it to develop further for up to five years at least.