The Everest Shiraz 2018
Tasting Notes

An intense, enticing nose of rich, red berry fruits and subtle French oak. The wine is incredibly dense and focused with a richness and purity that simply exudes top class Barossa Shiraz. Rich dark chocolate, mocha and cedar spice are all to the fore but the central core is highly focused

 

Winemaking

Only the very best grapes are selected from individual vineyard blocks in exceptional vintages. Hand-picked, hand-sorted to 1 ton open fermenters with four times daily plunging and careful basket pressing. The highest quality parcels from this years fermented wines are set aside for 18 months maturation in the finest French oak. Once bottled the wine spends a further 24 months maturing in our cellars before release.  

A barrel selection is made of only the finest wines to produce the pinnacle of that vintage – The Everest.

Both at 100+ years of age
SOIL TYPE Stonewell – Ferrous clay limestone outcrops
Vine Vale – Deep sandy loam soils

VINEYARDS: Nuriootpa, Stonewell

 

 

Reviews
96+ Points
Review by: Andrew Caillard MW
Deep crimson. Dark chocolate, mulberry, blackberry black cherry aromas with paneforte/ praline/ vanilla notes. Dense, chocolaty and bold with deep set dark berry, musky plum flavours, plentiful bitter chocolaty tannins and roasted chestnut, vanilla, marzipan oak. Finishes chocolaty firm with plentiful concentrated ark fruits and paneforte notes. A powerful wine with remarkable density and torque, backed up by a pure line of acidity. Still elemental but richly flavoured and balanced. Impressive but give it time to unpack and unfold. Will it land in the Sea of Tranquility or the Roaring Forties? Either way – don’t drink for a while! 2024 – 2032 
98 Points
Review by: Sam Kim, Wine Orbit
A compelling offering with supercharged fruit richness wonderfully enhanced by toasted spice, cedar, cured meat and potpourri nuances, it’s sumptuous and gracious with layers of delicious flavours. Superbly structured by fine-grained tannins, making it symphonic and magnificently long on the finish. At its best: 2024 to 2048. 
98 Points
Review by: Ken Gargett, Wine Pilot
The very best grapes from individual blocks are selected – here, from vineyards at Nuriootpa and Stonewell with the vines over a century in age, only in the best vintages, and there is no doubt that 2018 more than qualifies as that. Hand harvested, basket pressed, no fining nor filtering, the wine sees the best French oak available to the estate. It will be placed in 1 tonne open fermenters for hand-plunging four times a day. 18 months in oak and then a barrel selection is made. In 2018, it was just two barrels. After bottling, the wine spends another two years ageing in the cellars, before release.  Inevitably near opaque, the nose here is truly intense, yet perfectly balanced. Oak is still integrating, but doing it so well. Coffee beans notes, dark chocolate, cassis, blackberries, mulberries, cedar and dry herbs, with a flick of tobacco leaf are to be found. Balance and intensity, but great length. Coiled power here. A supple, rather gorgeous texture. Silky, almost melting tannins. As for ageing it, hard to imagine it has an end date. And if it does, not sure it would be relevant to many people currently alive.
96 Points
Review by: Huon Hooke, The Real Review
Deep red colour with a touch of purple lingering at the rim. The bouquet is rich and chocolaty, dark-plums and blackberries too. Dark-chocolate-coated black cherries. Licorice bullets. It's very full-bodied and sumptuously rich, decadently fruit-sweet and almost luscious in the mouth. Oak is in excellent harmony; tannins are fulsome, fleshy and supple, and the aftertaste glides on and on. Peak Drinking: 2021-2041
95 Points
Review by: Jeni Port, Wine Pilot

The Everest is said to represent the “pinnacle” of winemaking at Chateau Tanunda. It might also be said to represent a touch of old Barossa, of big alcohol, bold flavours, the epitome of generosity. The Everest shiraz is definitely of a style, but a well-made style at that.

Bramble, black olive, tar, new leather and black fruits gather, bringing rich and complex aromas. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, actually, it’s quite light on its feet for such a big wine. It’s intense, too, with a lively savouriness best described as a smoked meat character. Ripe tannins help the wine flow to a long finish.

95 Points
Review by: Angus Hughson, Wine Pilot
The Everest is Chateau Tanunda’s shot at the title, their pinnacle shiraz and grenache from every vintage. In 2018 it is a barrel selection from Nurioopta and Stonewell fruit given 18 months in high quality French oak. Deep ruby in colour, it started out a little shy but it wasn’t long before its true character started to show. Rich blackberry and mulberry fruits lifted by spice, earth and Bay leaf provide a complex and confident start. Like the 50 Year Old Vine release from the same vintage, the palate is quite traditional with robust, hearty fruits, reminiscent of blackberries, liquorice and tar, underscored by chunky tannins and slick oak before a long, even and flowing finish. It’s built to age so try to give it at least a decade to showcase all it has to offer.
GOLD MEDAL
Review by: Berlin Wine Trophy 2022
95 Points
Review by: Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
2018 was a warm but excellent vintage in the Barossa, and the Shirazes that are being released and drunk now are softening and opening up into the plump, rounded things that they will become. This has fearsome tannins in the mouth that provide a firm framework from which the fruit can hang, however it is all in a strange kind of intense balance. On the palate, there is a confluence of orange zest, coffee grounds, Christmas spice, red dirt and iodine, licorice root and blood plum. The tannins have an earthy beetroot quality to them. This is big, impressive and traveling very well.
94 Points
Review by: James Suckling

 

Everest Shiraz
Tasting Notes

An intense, enticing nose of rich, red berry fruits and subtle French oak. The wine is incredibly dense and focused with a richness and purity that simply exudes top class Barossa Shiraz. Rich dark chocolate, mocha and cedar spice are all to the fore but the central core is highly focused

 

Winemaking

Only the very best grapes are selected from individual vineyard blocks in exceptional vintages. Hand-picked, hand-sorted to 1 ton open fermenters with four times daily plunging and careful basket pressing. The highest quality parcels from this years fermented wines are set aside for 18 months maturation in the finest French oak. Once bottled the wine spends a further 24 months maturing in our cellars before release.  

A barrel selection is made of only the finest wines to produce the pinnacle of that vintage – The Everest.

Both at 100+ years of age
SOIL TYPE Stonewell – Ferrous clay limestone outcrops
Vine Vale – Deep sandy loam soils

VINEYARDS: Nuriootpa, Stonewell

 

 

Reviews
96+ Points

Score: 96+ Points
Review by: Andrew Caillard MW
Deep crimson. Dark chocolate, mulberry, blackberry black cherry aromas with paneforte/ praline/ vanilla notes. Dense, chocolaty and bold with deep set dark berry, musky plum flavours, plentiful bitter chocolaty tannins and roasted chestnut, vanilla, marzipan oak. Finishes chocolaty firm with plentiful concentrated ark fruits and paneforte notes. A powerful wine with remarkable density and torque, backed up by a pure line of acidity. Still elemental but richly flavoured and balanced. Impressive but give it time to unpack and unfold. Will it land in the Sea of Tranquility or the Roaring Forties? Either way – don’t drink for a while! 2024 – 2032 

98 Points
Review by: Sam Kim, Wine Orbit
A compelling offering with supercharged fruit richness wonderfully enhanced by toasted spice, cedar, cured meat and potpourri nuances, it’s sumptuous and gracious with layers of delicious flavours. Superbly structured by fine-grained tannins, making it symphonic and magnificently long on the finish. At its best: 2024 to 2048. 

98 Points

Score: 98 Points
Review by: Ken Gargett, Wine Pilot
The very best grapes from individual blocks are selected – here, from vineyards at Nuriootpa and Stonewell with the vines over a century in age, only in the best vintages, and there is no doubt that 2018 more than qualifies as that. Hand harvested, basket pressed, no fining nor filtering, the wine sees the best French oak available to the estate. It will be placed in 1 tonne open fermenters for hand-plunging four times a day. 18 months in oak and then a barrel selection is made. In 2018, it was just two barrels. After bottling, the wine spends another two years ageing in the cellars, before release.  Inevitably near opaque, the nose here is truly intense, yet perfectly balanced. Oak is still integrating, but doing it so well. Coffee beans notes, dark chocolate, cassis, blackberries, mulberries, cedar and dry herbs, with a flick of tobacco leaf are to be found. Balance and intensity, but great length. Coiled power here. A supple, rather gorgeous texture. Silky, almost melting tannins. As for ageing it, hard to imagine it has an end date. And if it does, not sure it would be relevant to many people currently alive.

96 Points
Review by: Huon Hooke, The Real Review
Deep red colour with a touch of purple lingering at the rim. The bouquet is rich and chocolaty, dark-plums and blackberries too. Dark-chocolate-coated black cherries. Licorice bullets. It's very full-bodied and sumptuously rich, decadently fruit-sweet and almost luscious in the mouth. Oak is in excellent harmony; tannins are fulsome, fleshy and supple, and the aftertaste glides on and on. Peak Drinking: 2021-2041

95 Points

Score: 95 Points
Review by: Jeni Port, Wine Pilot

The Everest is said to represent the “pinnacle” of winemaking at Chateau Tanunda. It might also be said to represent a touch of old Barossa, of big alcohol, bold flavours, the epitome of generosity. The Everest shiraz is definitely of a style, but a well-made style at that.

Bramble, black olive, tar, new leather and black fruits gather, bringing rich and complex aromas. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, actually, it’s quite light on its feet for such a big wine. It’s intense, too, with a lively savouriness best described as a smoked meat character. Ripe tannins help the wine flow to a long finish.

95 Points

Score: 95 Points
Review by: Angus Hughson, Wine Pilot
The Everest is Chateau Tanunda’s shot at the title, their pinnacle shiraz and grenache from every vintage. In 2018 it is a barrel selection from Nurioopta and Stonewell fruit given 18 months in high quality French oak. Deep ruby in colour, it started out a little shy but it wasn’t long before its true character started to show. Rich blackberry and mulberry fruits lifted by spice, earth and Bay leaf provide a complex and confident start. Like the 50 Year Old Vine release from the same vintage, the palate is quite traditional with robust, hearty fruits, reminiscent of blackberries, liquorice and tar, underscored by chunky tannins and slick oak before a long, even and flowing finish. It’s built to age so try to give it at least a decade to showcase all it has to offer.

GOLD MEDAL

Score: GOLD MEDAL
Review by: Berlin Wine Trophy 2022

95 Points

Score: 95 Points
Review by: Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
2018 was a warm but excellent vintage in the Barossa, and the Shirazes that are being released and drunk now are softening and opening up into the plump, rounded things that they will become. This has fearsome tannins in the mouth that provide a firm framework from which the fruit can hang, however it is all in a strange kind of intense balance. On the palate, there is a confluence of orange zest, coffee grounds, Christmas spice, red dirt and iodine, licorice root and blood plum. The tannins have an earthy beetroot quality to them. This is big, impressive and traveling very well.

94 Points

Score: 94 Points
Review by: James Suckling

 

BACK TO TOP OF PAGE
Everest Shiraz