St Hallett’s Mighty Ox Shiraz is a new icon for the heritage Barossa label. It is a decadent, classic style of Barossa Shiraz, saturated with black fruit and fit for many decades of cellaring.
Fruit for this wine is sourced from several sites in the Northern Barossa, in Ebenezer, Greenock, and Moppa Hills. Bold and strong, it is named for the oxen that were once used to plough the soils of the Barossa. All parcels for this wine are treated individually, then spend 8 to 12 days of warm fermentation on skins. It is aged in American oak. The result is a full bodied showstopper, luscious and driving on the palate. The fruit intensity here is immense, with oak nuances teeming with vanilla and dark chocolate. The finish is incredibly long.
A nod to the traditional, full-bodied Barossa Valley shiraz style, this has a rich array of blackberry, blackcurrant, earth, lead-pencil and beef-stock aromas with a strong, tarry thread, too. The palate has such a bold, full-bodied style that is saturated with blackberries and really intense, bold tannins. Big, delicious and balanced. Northwestern Barossa sourcing here. Magnums only, this is custom made for collectors and cellaring.
96 points, JamesSuckling.com (September 2020)
Very dark, saturated purple/red/black colour, with a similarly concentrated aroma of tar, blackberry, herbs, machine-oil and graphite, with a generous component of smoky char oak. The wine is very full-bodied and dense, concentrated, chewy textured and long, with masses of supple tannins. This is a whopper, with a huge future ahead of it.
96 points, The Real Review (October 2020)
Barossa Valley
Colonel William Light, the South Australian colony’s Surveyor-General, named the Barossa in 1837 after the site of an English victory over the French in the Spanish Peninsular War. In the mid-1800’s Silesian and English immigrants settled in the area. The Barossa itself comprises two distinct sub-regions: Eden Valley and the warmer Barossa Valley floor at 270m.The Barossa Valley enjoys a warm Mediterranean climate characterised by hot dry summers and relatively low rainfall. Cool sea breezes from the Gulf of St Vincent modify the temperature, however hot northerly winds can occasionally dominate creating considerable vine stress. Many older established vineyards are dry-grown, but supplementary irrigation is also extensively used. The valley is comprised of rich brown soils and alluvial sands. A long history of uninterrupted viticulture in the area means the Barossa valley is home to Australia’s largest concentration of old-vine Shiraz, Grenache and Mourvedre with many over 100 years old. Although most famous for Shiraz, the Barossa can also produce fragrant and deliciously fruity Grenache blends and beautifully rich, chocolatey Cabernet Sauvignons.The Lindner Family established St Hallett in the heart of the Barossa Valley near Tanunda in 1944. After a relatively sleepy beginning producing fortified wines, the winery restructured its ownership. The rumbustious pioneering energy of Barossa legend Bob McLean during the 1980s and 1990s saw an extraordinary metamorphosis. Stuart Blackwell, St Hallett’s winemaker since 1972 oversaw the development of Langton's Classified 'Excellent' St Hallet Old Block Shiraz, perhaps one of the most successful ultra-fine Barossa Shirazes and an early cult-type wine. Alongside Old Block, St Hallett makes a range of wines that consistently over-deliver including the classic reserve style Blackwell Shiraz.
