2023 Standish ‘The Standish’ Shiraz

"This gentle elongated ripening creating a special vintage giving us wines of great lusciousness and complexity... Some of our most complex and captivating wines to date."
- Dan Standish on the 2023 vintage

Stuart McCloskey (Tasted April 2025)
 Glass staining violet colour – wonderful gloss to the wine too… The bouquet is explosive to put it mildly and leads with mint, mulberry, crème de mûre, dark chocolate, exotic spices, iron filings, graphite and iodine. A mix of florals, minerals and seaweed emerge after more time in my glass. This is incredibly dense and feels bottomless – It’s astonishing how Dan extracts such concentration and intrigue. The palate follows a similar, blacker-than-black path – akin to jumping off a cliff and falling forever. This is such an authoritative wine that drives with ripe mulberry, blackberry, violet pastille, liquorice, mulberry compote, mocha, black olive, alpine herbs, and layers of iron-borne minerals. The tannins spread across the palate and play a vital part to the wine’s overall balance. Essentially, they stand up to the saturated fruit and ripeness. The length is astonishing and tapers off into the abyss with a hint of orange zest. Profoundly good winemaking and comfortably sits alongside Australia’s elite. This is destined for a very long life. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is drinking like a distant dream in 2075… Decanted for 24-hours (poured back into the bottle – cork left out)