2019 John Duval Wines Shiraz Entity Barossa Valley 750 ml

Winemaking icon John Duval has crafted some of Australia’s most legendary Shiraz, and after tasting the luscious and velvety 2019 Entity—a bottle with all the exuberance of its 96-99-point predecessors—it’s clear that he’s struck gold once again. 

This wine was a fast sell-out in January, and we’re lucky to have secured another allocation for Wine Access members. 

It’s amazing that this top-flight Shiraz’ price hasn’t skyrocketed yet, because Entity is on a hot streak like we’ve rarely ever seen. The 2017 won Australia’s Shiraz of the Year award, and the last five vintages have earned 96, 96, 97, 99, and 97 points from James Halliday’s Wine Companion. It’s no wonder that the last three vintages have vanished in about half an hour!

The 2019 is poised to match and even surpass its sibling phenoms, showing the kind of depth and concentration that have inspired their perennial acclaim and made Entity an envy-inducing bottle among Australian collectors. As one Wine Access member put it after we offered the 2018: “This is a superb Shiraz. Our Australian cousin has begged us to save her a bottle.”

John Duval is a legend. During the Australia native’s nearly 30 years at Penfolds—17 of which he spent as head winemaker—he crafted Grange, which is widely regarded as Australia’s greatest First Growth Shiraz and one of the planet’s top expressions of the grape. In 2003, he left Penfolds to focus on his own small-production wines, and he didn’t miss a beat. 

Going out on his own was a homecoming of sorts, because Duval’s family had been farming and growing grapes in Barossa since the 19th century, even supplying—drumroll, please—John’s former employer, Penfolds. That means that he came home to his choice of fantastic old-vine Shiraz.

For the 2019 Entity, he tapped some of the most prestigious sites in the Barossa Valley, Australia’s Shiraz paradise, as well as the cooler Eden Valley, adding impressive depth and balance. Barossa Valley’s 2019 vintage had low yields, but the grapes it produced are truly exquisite, showing exceptional vibrancy and concentration. Given 15 months to age in 35% new French oak, this wine developed equally exceptional structure and balance. Pour a glass and it blossoms with a spellbinding assortment of dark berries, mocha, vanilla, and anise. It’s no less alluring on the palate, a brilliant balance of blackberries and blueberries with baking chocolate and exotic spices. 

This is stratospheric quality from one of the most legendary names in Aussie Shiraz. It's a wine that carries the prestige and pedigree of its forebears with effortless poise.