Elephant Hill Airavata Syrah 2013 $95 ★★★★★
This wine was 3.5 years in the making. Choosing the best possible syrah rows, adopting a specific canopy management strategy to grow ‘super syrah’ and then working on it with kid gloves in the winery to create the first ‘Icon’ syrah since 2009. This Airavata (meaning ‘the king-god of Elephants’) is impenetrably deep and inky, unfolding a peacocks tail of violets, dried herbs, seasoned leather and heady, spice-driven christmas cake aromas. In the mouth it has incredible depth and complexity, elegant, feminine fruit concentration and smoky, nutty nuances on the finish. It’s a wine that has decades of potential to exhibit.
