The Wine Advocate | RP 94
Published: Aug 24, 2023
Drink: 2023-2035

My, my, my, the 2021 Holy Grail Seppeltsfield Road Seppeltsfield Shiraz is a big wine. Nothing else is expected of course, but still, it is significant in stature. It has black everything: cherries, berries, resin, tar, tobacco, earth, rocks, tea, roast beef crust and chocolate. It's an intense wine. 14.3% alcohol, sealed under Diam.

Twohandswines.com

The Holy Grail Shiraz comes from our Estate Single Vineyard in the sub-region of Seppeltsfield, in the Barossa Valley.

The first part of this site was purchased in 2008 and included 52 acres of vacant land. The vision was to wait until resources permitted and plant this Ares of land as specifically as possible. Just before the 2015 vintage a further 37 acres of land were purchased, which included 16 acres of established Shiraz vines. This vineyard produced 27 tonnes in its first vintage, with fruit going into My Hands, Ares, Single Vineyard and a few barrels to Bella’s garden.

TASTING NOTES:
Written by Two Hands Proprietor Michael Twelftree upon release in 2023
COLOUR: Deep black in colour.
AROMA: A bouquet of smoke, dark plum, violets, coffee grind, glazed berries, liquorice, tar, sarsaparilla and incense PALATE: This is a big wine straight out the gate, it shows loads of concentrated fruits that are both energetic and powerful. As with all the top vintages from Holy Grail, this has the amazing ability to spring board into a soft natured wine. It starts out big but then changes gear and the finish comes across soft, fresh and lingering. Out of all the 2021 Single Vineyard bottlings, the Holy Grail is the one that seems to be the most reserved, it’s very tightly coiled up and it takes time in the decanter to start to see its inner energy and class emerge. The tannins are stony, with a lovely soft and lingering edge. They reverberate giving this wine excellent length, that slowly dissipates in the late palate. This wine is built for the long haul in cellaring, and I believe it will need 3 to 4 years to start showing its true potential. Patience is required but the rewards will be great.

WINEMAKING
Several small parcels from the Holy Grail vineyard were destemmed into 5T stainless steel. Gently pumped over 2-3 times daily, these parcels were pressed after an average time on skins of 10 days. All free run and pressings were combined in tank and was then racked off to barrel, to go through malolatic fermantation. The wine was bottled with minimum fining and no filtration.
MATURATION: Aged for 18 months in 1-4 year old French oak barrels. Bottled in November the following vintage.