| Country: | Australia |
| Region: | Barossa Valley |
| Winery: | Mollydooker |
| Grape Type: | Shiraz |
| Vintage: | 2021 |
| Bottle Size: | 750 ml |
Mollydooker Enchanted Path Shiraz - Cabernet Sauvignon is made from 71% Shiraz (the same juice that goes into Carnival of Love) and 29% Cabernet Sauvignon.
TASTING NOTES: This wine is both strong and inviting, showcasing rich flavours harmoniously balanced by delicate tannins, resulting in a wine that is both deep and refined. There is an abundance of dark fruit flavours such as plum jam and mocha, alongside the vibrant notes of cherry and strawberry, creating a dynamic flavour profile. The Cabernet characteristics seamlessly complement the bold Shiraz qualities, crafting an intriguing and captivating blend. TECHNICAL NOTES: The grapes were grown on the Gateway and Rivers Lane vineyards in McLaren Vale. Barrel fermented and matured in 94% American and 6% French oak, using 85% new and 15% one year old barrels. The required Marquis Fruit Weight™ for the Love Series is 85% – 95%. The Actual Fruit Weight for 2022 Enchanted Path is 86%.
Review:
The sensational 2022 ‘Enchanted Path’ is a gorgeous blend of 70% Shiraz with the remainder Cabernet Sauvignon. The nose is gorgeous with fresh sage alongside espresso bean, blueberry compote and shades of black licorice. The palate is powerful and intense with a refined texture. Gorgeous now, watch this evolve over the next twelve to fifteen years to come.
- Owen Bargreen 95 Points
Mollydooker Carnival of Love Shiraz is made from 100 percent Shiraz.
WHAT IS THE CARNIVAL OF LOVE?
This is as life should be – a Carnival of Love. A place where everyone wants to be, and no one wants to leave.
TASTING NOTES:
Intense in colour, flavour and aroma, our 2021 Carnival of Love Shiraz captivates the palate from the first sip. Powerful yet delicate, lifted aromas of red cherry, blackberry and turkish delight evolve, while subtle hints of mocha linger. Infectious chocolate cherry, fresh plum and liquorice add to the complexity, while creating a seamless structure and lingering finish.
TECHNICAL NOTES:
The grapes were grown on the Gateway vineyard in McLaren Vale. Barrel fermented and matured in 100% American oak, using 100% new barrels. The required Marquis Fruit Weight™ for the Love Series is 85% – 95%. The Actual Fruit Weight for 2021 Carnival of Love 88%.
Alcohol: 16.5%
pH: 3.66
Reviews:
Another sensational edition of the Mollydooker ‘Carnival of Love’ Shiraz from 2021 — and I am not the least surprised. I’ve had every edition of this wine for more than a decade. This bottling was as usual aged in all new American oak. On the nose this takes on dense black currant jelly, cigar box and shades of creosote with Arabica bean. The palate is soft and inviting with its plush texture and seamless mouthfeel as this effortlessly glides throughout the drinking experience. A joy to drink now so young, this will easily cellar for another ten years and potentially more. But why wait?
- Owen Bargreen 96 Points
Mollydooker Carnival of Love Shiraz is made from 100 percent Shiraz.
WHAT IS THE CARNIVAL OF LOVE?
This is as life should be – a Carnival of Love. A place where everyone wants to be, and no one wants to leave.
TASTING NOTES:
The 2022 Carnival of Love Shiraz is a vibrant and expressive wine. It starts with raspberry and cherry scents, with a touch of aniseed spice. The taste is filled with rich red fruit, hints of coffee, coconut, and deeper plum flavors. Chocolate and spice add extra dimensions to this McLaren Vale Shiraz, making it a delightful wine to celebrate.
TECHNICAL NOTES:
The grapes were grown on the Gateway vineyard in McLaren Vale. Barrel fermented and matured in 100% American oak, using 100% new barrels. The required Marquis Fruit Weight™ for the Love Series is 85% – 95%. The Actual Fruit Weight for 2021 Carnival of Love 88%.
Alcohol: 16.5%
pH: 3.66
Reviews:
Year after year the ‘Carnival of Love’ is one of the astonishingly good Shiraz bottlings for the price out of South Australia, as this wine has not seen a serious price increase in more than a decade (still under 100 bucks USD). This 2022 edition was stored in all new American oak and weights in at 16.5% alcohol but the freshness backing everything up makes this everything but boozy. The weight and pillowy texture really drives this wine as it effortlessly glides throughout the drinking experience. Opulent dark and blue fruits meld effortlessly with dark chocolate shavings, graphite, scorched earth and shades of sweet pipe tobacco on the palate. This is a joy to drink.
- Owen Bargreen 97 Points
Mollydooker Velvet Glove Shiraz is made from 100 percent Shiraz.
Sticky plum jam and spicy nutmeg aromas are alluringly prominent on the nose, whilst berries and mocha weave
and envelop your entire palate. The finish is incredibly smooth and silky, with elegant fruit flavors that linger in your mouth. An outstanding example of a perfectly balanced Shiraz from McLaren Vale.
Review:
The stunning 2022 ‘The Velvet Glove’ is a stunning wine coming from the Gateway Vineyard in McLaren Vale. Stored in all new American oak barrels before bottling, this delivers a glassstaining purple, with blueberry pie and boysenberry cordial notes alongside tar, anise, Cuban cigar and suggestions of Black Forest cake on the nose. The absolutely gorgeous aromatics bring you back to the glass for more hedonistic pleasure. This is obviously big, bold and heady, but has remarkable freshness and seamless texture. This is very weightless stuff that will have a long life ahead of it. But why wait?
-Owen Bargreen 99 Points
Bright and glossy ruby red in color. On the nose it reveals aromas of small fresh berries and a trace of sour cherry, melded with hints of blackberries and black cherries, followed by a hint of vanilla. A fragrant wine with satisfying intensity. On the palate it is warm, smooth and a medium-bodied with finely-balanced tannins. Dry and sinewy yet fresh with a persistent, aromatic finish.
It naturally accompanies dishes that are typical of Tuscan cuisine with its bold, authentic flavors, such as pasta and risottos made with mushrooms or truffles, pork, grilled meats and medium-matured cheeses.
Review:
Notes of ripe cherries, dried flowers and walnuts with hints of anisette and licorice. Medium- to full-bodied, compact and dense with creamy tannins and steady acidity. Weighty and structured. Drink or hold.
-James Suckling 91 Points
The Factor is predominantly from the Gomersal and Marananga sub-regions of the Barossa, providing dense texture and richness to the palate with subtle notes of olive tapenade, saddle leather and minerals. Ripe aromas of plum and wild blackberries, olive, pepper and spice are all supported by a dark core of espresso roast, ripe blackberries and saltbush. Brooding and densely packed, this lavish wine has ample generosity to cellar for many years, where it will slowly unravel.
Review:
Offers a dense, powerful mix of violet, bittersweet chocolate and sandalwood-infused morello cherries in syrup. Blueberry, blackberry and date-nut bread flavors are plump on a frame of polished and toothsome tannins. Clove and Saigon cinnamon notes linger, with a powerful crescendo on the finish. Shiraz.
Wine Spectator 96 Points
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate 96+ Points
Mollydooker Enchanted Path Shiraz - Cabernet Sauvignon is made from 71% Shiraz (the same juice that goes into Carnival of Love) and 29% Cabernet Sauvignon.
A blend of two quintessential Australian varieties, our 2021 Enchanted Path blend showcases Shiraz and Cabernet working together in perfect harmony. Gorgeous wild berries and fresh plum jump out of the glass, with hints of cinnamon and dark chocolate creating an alluring fragrance. Liquorice and mocha notes emerge on the palate in a long finish that captivates your taste buds.
The grapes were grown on the Gateway and Rivers Lane vineyards in McLaren Vale. Barrel fermented and matured in 96% American and 4% French oak, using 85% new and 15% one year old barrels. The required Marquis Fruit Weight™ for the Love Series is 85% – 95%. The Actual Fruit Weight for 2021 Enchanted Path is 86%.
Review:
A total show-stopper, the 2021 Mollydooker ‘Enchanted Path’ combines 70% Shiraz with 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, all sourced from the Gateway and Rivers Lane vineyards in McLaren Vale. Stored in nearly all new French oak, this opens with Asian spices and Earl Grey tea notes alongside huckleberry and suggestions of dark chocolate covered espresso bean on the nose. The palate is very powerful and rich, yet shows an outstanding sense of poise despite weighing in at 16% alcohol. The heady core of black and blue fruits greets you alongside its pillowy texture. Savor this beauty now and over the next ten plus years.
- Owen Bargreen 96 Points
Our winery is in beautiful scenic McLaren Vale, 30 minutes easy drive from Adelaide. Bordered by the Adelaide Hills and five minutes away from glorious beaches, McLaren Vale is a great place to come visit. It is like a big village, we all know one another, and we all love having visitors. The food here is fabulous, fresh and local, and we have a thriving artistic community.
‘The region is so effortless in the fun-loving lifestyle it exudes, that I always feel a little guilty visiting the area for ‘work’. Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Advocate.
Our vineyards are situated on the magical Seaview Ridge, which with its ancient soils and Mediterranean climate, is home to some of the most iconic Australian wines. We have three separate vineyards – Long Gully Road, Coppermine Road and the Home Blocks, giving us a total of 114 acres of Shiraz, Cabernet and Merlot. All of our grapes are grown sustainably.
We aim to make 80,000 dozen cases of wine each vintage. The tank farm, barrel hall and crushing area are our cellar team’s pride and joy. We’ve got a 1500 tonne crushing capacity, but we only crush just over 1200 tonnes so that the team has plenty of time to mollycoddle the wines, and to keep the winery spick and span.
Sarah and the winemaking team taste each separate batch of wine to gauge when enough oak influence is achieved. From here, we begin the blending process, sampling and blending each batch to create the finished Mollydooker wine. Once complete, the wines are chilled to 5 °C to force the sediment out of the wines in tank. By this time harvest and vintage is just around the corner… and we begin the process again for the new vintage wines.
I feel this wine expresses the greatness of California and its hidden pockets where Cabernet can excel. The cold Pacific Ocean running the entire length of the state presents maritime influences – and with each small distance eastward the climate warms. Stony soils, south facing slopes and moderately warm conditions are the keys to producing dark, rich and good tasting Cabernet.
A small release from Caymus Vineyards, this wine is a California-appellation Cabernet Sauvignon – supple, dark and rich, bearing the signature hallmarks of Caymus. It is sourced from sites throughout the state which feature climatic conditions, soils and topography that are ideally suited to Cabernet. This project stems from excitement over California's diverse vineyard land, often in lesser-known areas, with the potential to produce exceptional Cabernet.
Every now and then, in life and in wine, we are presented with unique opportunities to express ourselves and create something truly remarkable.
When rare opportunities arise, we need to capture, nurture and develop them so that their potential is fulfilled. So when Torbreck was given the opportunity to work with one of the most famous vineyards in the Barossa Valley, it became almost inevitable that the resulting wine would be truly remarkable.
In 2003, Torbreck growers and fourth generation descendants of the Seppelt family, Malcolm and Joylene Seppelt, asked our winemakers to create for them a small batch of Shiraz from their old Gnadenfrei vineyard in the sub-region of Marananga.
Planted in 1958, the five acre vineyard is traditionally dry grown and comes from an original Barossa clonal source. South facing, on the eastern side of a ridge separating the Seppeltsfield and Marananga appellations, these aged vines have been meticulously hand tended, traditionally farmed and pruned by a grower with a lifetime’s experience on Western Barossa soils of very dark, heavy clay loam over red friable clay. The resulting low yields of small, concentrated Shiraz berries make the vineyard the envy of all winemakers in the Barossa.
We looked longingly at the wine when it was returned to the Seppelts, knowing that it was the best we had ever made. In 2005 we convinced the Seppelts to sell Torbreck the fruit and The Laird was born. In 2013 Torbreck purchased the Gnadenfrei vineyard, securing The Laird’s reputation as one of the world’s great single vineyard Shiraz wines.
Torbreck is the name of a forest near Inverness, Scotland and you’ll find more than a passing nod to the Celts in our wine naming conventions. The Laird of the Estate in Scotland is the Lord of the Manor and master of all he surveys.
Review:
I poured the 2017 The Laird, set it aside and got about doing other jobs for 45 minutes or so, to give it some room to breathe. And it does breathe. It has its own pulse and beat and life, and it flexes and moves in the mouth. This is incredibly enveloping, with aromas reminiscent of campfire coals, charred eucalyptus, lamb fat, roasted beetroot, black tea and a prowling sort of countenance. In the mouth, the wine is bonded and cohesive and seamless, there are no gaps between anything, no space between fruit, oak and tannin; it all comes as one. While this is a singular wine, it is so big and concentrated that it needs no accompaniment other than some fresh air and a good mate. It's denser than osmium and is impenetrable at this stage.
Named after Joe Donelan’s mother, the Nancie Chardonnay is our take on cool-climate, timeless Chardonnay. We love the way Nancie captures the classic qualities of Chardonnay while also exhibiting the unique traits of the unusual sites we source from. This Chardonnay is an emphasis on Old Vines, dry farming, and California heritage clones and selections. Every vintage embodies elegance and class, but no vintage is the same. The assemblage changes every year, so Nancie does not have a recipe. This wine lets us sit shotgun while the cool climate and the terroir do all the navigating, and they never steer us wrong. It is truly an inimitable wine made from a blend of incredible fruit we farm throughout Sonoma County, from the Coast to the Sonoma/Napa border.
On the nose, the Nancie Chardonnay opens with nutmeg, ginger snap, and chai spice leading to high-tone fruit like red apple skin, orange blossom, orchard fruit, and green pineapple. Judicious acidity makes this a great candidate for pairing with food. It’s very fresh on the palate, engaging, and invigorating, and it has quite a finish for Chardonnay. This is a stand-out wine among its peers, with one foot in California, and one foot in the old world.
Nutmeg, ginger snap, chai spice, orange blossom, and red apple skin on the nose. Salinity, minerality, and wonderful acidity on the palate.
Review:
"Named after proprietor Joe Donelan’s mother, the Nancie Chardonnay is crafted from a blend of exceptional vineyard sites across Sonoma. Key sources include Farina Vineyard on Sonoma Mountain, the 45-year-old vines at Lazy W Ranch in the Russian River Valley, along with fruit from Allen Family Ranch and Dehlinger–Garbro Ranch. Winemaker David Milner notes that sites offering mineral tension and naturally high acidity are essential to shaping the blend. The wine is aged for 10 months in 24% new oak. In 2023, the aromatics are superb, with a freshness factor that feels almost unparalleled. Citrus notes and hints of underripe pineapple mingle with ginger spice, flinty minerality and a distinct sea-salt character. Medium-bodied and beautifully precise, the palate is driven by crystalline acidity and candied citrus peel fruit dusted with saline nuance. Citrus, orchard and stone fruit notes build toward an incredibly long, lingering finish, touched by subtle toffee spice. Distinctly saline, complex and expressive, this is a Chardonnay of clarity, energy and sheer deliciousness. - Jonathan CRISTALDI"
Decanter, 96 points