2018 Capel Vale Shiraz Single Vineyard Whispering Hill Mount Barker 750 ml

Few places in the world grow Shiraz with as much complexity and exuberance as Australia. Bold expressions from warm regions thrust Oz onto the world’s wine stage, yet the grape can draw stunning nuance and ageworthiness from the country’s remote, windswept hillsides—and Capel Vale’s 2018 Whispering Hill proves it.

It’s crafted from the choicest fruit off the vineyard’s tiniest block, perched atop Whispering Hill, where brisk Antarctic winds off the Southern Ocean cool the vines. Here, in the shadow of the ancient Porongurup Mountain range, granite outcroppings reminiscent of the Northern Rhône dot the vineyard’s rows of elegant Shiraz.

In 2019, that site put forth a wine that blew away the judges at Decanter’s Asia Wine Awards, who said it “stakes a convincing claim to the fine-wine high ground,” awarding it 97 points and Best in Show honors. As one of only two 100% Syrahs to garner such praise, it outshined bottles from around the world.

One glass and you’ll see exactly what wowed those judges: Effusive aromas of black fruit, white pepper, and clove preview a palate that weaves fresh acidity through black plums, dark chocolate, licorice, thyme, violets, and black tea. It’s all framed by fine, ripe tannins.

Australia’s Great Southern region is vast, wild, and sparsely populated. It was once the country’s winemaking Wild West, a rippling landscape strewn with forests and mountain crags. Mount Barker is its oldest and perhaps most renowned subregion, where warm afternoons and chilly nights elicit “particularly expressive, finely textured versions” of Shiraz, in the words of Wine Enthusiast. 

This bottle drives that point home with authority. It’s a sophisticated wine that will continue gaining complexity over the next two decades.