John Duval Entity Shiraz 2016 | Dark & Profound from the Barossa Valley Master

John Duval Entity Shiraz 2016 presents a dense purple-black hue. Vibrant aromas of crushed blackberries, violets, woodsmoke and a hint of cola. While full-bodied in the mouth with more blackberry, black plums, and cassis.  Yet hints of candied pastille and anise add to the experience. It’s amazing how such a dark brooding wine can be so florally aromatic when it opens in the glass.  Most of all, another Shiraz hit from the Barossa Valley master. Drink now to 2028.

G’day Mate – try some more Red Wine Gems under $35

97JH | 60% Barossa Valley, 40% Eden Valley grapes, open-fermented with submerged cap, matured for 15 months in new (33%) and used French hogsheads. John Duval Entity Shiraz 2016 is deeply colored.  While this is at once full-bodied and elegant.  Yet not a common marriage with young red wines with decades in front of them.  So the flavors are all black: blackberry, blackcurrant, black cherry, earth, and licorice.  Finally, the old vines have also provided ripe tannins, the whole theme resonated with oak a la Grange.

Little “Grange” | Last 2 vintages sold out bloody fast…

Duval’s 2016 Barossa Valley Entity Shiraz earned 97 points from James Halliday. Never has his masterful authorship been so apparent than in this release. While drawn from the same hand-picked vineyards with which Duval had worked for so long. For $29.99 a bottle on cases, you can enjoy, and keep enjoying, John Duval’s “Little Grange” for years to come.

Today’s 2016 climbs higher still, with its 97-point score from Halliday. Sourced from 50-100-year-old vineyards in Ebenezer, Light Pass, Krondorf, Moppa, and Eden Valley regions.  John Duval Entity Shiraz 2016 offers up “the classic blackberry compote nose, as well as some more intriguing nuances such as blueberry skin, dried eucalyptus, and dark chocolate,” wrote Wine Spectator.

Aged for 15 months in 33 percent new French oak, John Duval Entity Shiraz 2016 is seamless and well integrated.  Of course, bearing all the touches you would expect from a master winemaker like Duval—except for the price tag.

Winemaker John Duval

So, Winemaker John Duval spent 29 years at Penfolds, one of Australia’s most legendary wineries. While crafting each extraordinary vintage of Grange for seventeen years as head winemaker.  Furthermore, a Shiraz bottling equaled only by the likes of Guigal’s Côte-Rôties and Michel Chapoutier’s Hermitage. In 2002, Duval left Penfolds to focus on his own small-production Shiraz — the most extraordinary of which is called “Entity.