Matthew Jukes has released his 2023/2024 100 Best Australian Wines List and Harewood Estate of the Great Southern and Eisenstone of the Barossa Valley both made their debut appearance on the much anticipated list. The 100 Best represents the finest one hundred Australian wines available on the shelves in the UK for the coming twelve months. Keep reading below to see Mathew’s thoughts on Harewood and Eisenstone wines.
2023 Harewood Porongurup Riesling
Matthew Jukes | Featured in Matthew Jukes 1 in 100 Best Australian Wines 2023/24: I am very keen on the wines from Harewood because they appear to possess a uniqueness and electricity that sparks the palate with freshness and mouthwatering qualities. This keenly-priced Riesling is ever so slightly off-dry, and, like Gundog Wild Semillon, this sleight of hand adds an extra dimension of juiciness and textural allure that is beautifully offset by the icicle-sharp acidity. With lemony, minty liquid silk flowing across the plate and hints of elderflower and fresh herbs keeping up the action, this is a charming and engaging wine you can drink at speed on a hot day or go slo-mo and relax under its spell. There is a second Harewood wine that grabbed my attention, and it is not one I expected to be so lip-smacking.
Matthew Jukes | Honorary mention in Matthew Jukes 1 in 100 Best Australian Wines 2023/24: If you combine the magical Pinot Noir grape with Harewood alchemy and the dramatic Porongurup climate, you end up with a blisteringly attractive wine. 2022 Harewood Estate Pinot Noir could easily sit in the Pinot Noir section such is its flavour, but I am spoilt for choice this year, so it has to share this entry with its Riesling sibling. Needless to say, this is a light, expressive, suave lunchtime wine with tenderness and expression, and it would love to be matched with grand fish dishes as much as a drumstick, so its diverse culinary repertoire ought to give you yet another reason to hunt it down!
2021 Eisenstone ‘Hoffman DV (Dimchurch Vineyard) Vyd. Ebenezer’ Shiraz SV902
Matthew Jukes | Featured in Matthew Jukes 1 in 100 Best Australian Wines 2023/24: The grapes for Hoffmann DV (Dimchurch Vineyard) are sourced from the famous Dallwitz Block, which was primarily planted between 1888 and 1912, and more specifically, rows 25-30 of the ‘younger’ 70+ year old vines. Approximately 2400 bottles were made, and unlike many of the famous South Australian icon wines that are blended from fruit sourced from multiple vineyards from within greater regional boundaries and also from parcels of fruit from entirely different regions to great effect, this wine is a true micro vinification from a single site, and so it might lack implicit complexity on account of this decision. Well, guess what? This is one of the most complex and challenging wines in this section. Beautiful, profound and incredibly refined, the fruit is tense and dark, introverted and cool, with tremendous, rousing mineral notes. Given the power, control and definition of the tannin structure, this will be a very long-lived wine.
2021 Eisenstone ‘Ebenezer’ Shiraz SR802
Matthew Jukes | Honorary mention in Matthew Jukes 1 in 100 Best Australian Wines 2023/24: By contrast, 2021 Eisenstone, Ebenezer Shiraz SR802, a 3200 production wine, is a brighter and more floral creation. Even though it has the Eisenstone signature traits of earth-driven, blackcurrant and black cherry fruit, there are lighter moments and a smoother texture here, which means you can crack on relatively soon, which is a bonus! I think this cuvée gives me a few extra hints about what might happen to SV902 over the passage of time, and this bodes extremely well for the future.
