2022 Punt Road Shiraz Napeoleone Vineyard Yarra Valley 750 ml

Yarra Valley is among Australia’s most esteemed wine regions, and few people know it like critic James Halliday. So when he calls a Yarra estate “one of the most historic sites in Victoria” and his publication gives one of its wines 95 points, we pay close attention. 

And the 2022 Punt Road Napoleone Vineyard Shiraz kept us riveted until the bottle was empty. 

This was the star of our last trip to Victoria. It’s luxurious and lifted, showing the spicy depth we love about Shiraz, with notes of black raspberries, fresh earth, cloves, bay leaves, tobacco, and star anise. Everything is elegant, with fine-grained tannins and measured acidity falling into perfect balance.

Punt Road has earned a perfect five-star rating from Halliday, who called the winery “a standard-bearer for wines of character, drinkability and a clear, proud Yarra Valley stamp.” The winery name refers to Melbourne’s Punt Road, which sits against the bank of the Yarra River and was once home to a vineyard called Airlie Bank. 

It was from this site that pioneering grapegrower Hubert De Castella acquired vine cuttings to plant 200 acres of vineyard in the Coldstream region. The wines produced there quickly gained fame in Australia and Europe, and the land would later become the home of Punt Road vineyard and winery.

The 58-hectare Napoleone Vineyard was first planted in 1983, though the Shiraz clones in this bottling were planted in '91. In the hands of winemaker Tim Shand—an alum of France’s Château Margaux and Domaine Dujac—this fruit gave the perfect materials for a Shiraz of structure and sophistication. It’s a captivating example of the luxury Yarra Valley Shiraz can offer.