Certified organic, the very ageworthy 2021 vintage (5*) was estate-grown in Mere Road and matured for over 18 months in French oak barriques (33 per cent new). Deeply coloured, with a fragrant, spicy, complex bouquet, it has fresh, concentrated blackcurrant, plum and spice flavours, vigorous, savoury and finely balanced. Set for a long life, it's well worth cellaring to 2026+.

Michael Cooper

95/100 Lovely aromatics here with taut peppery berry fruits, showing some floral perfume. In the mouth this has lovely concentration but also brightness and some elegance. There’s a slight hint of ginger and cinnamon, and then it finishes with a hint of gravelly crunch alongside the pepper. Very stylish.

Jamie Goode

95/100. Fragrant syrah with floral, dense fruit/dark berries/blackcurrant, pepper and spice flavours. Youthful wine with excellent development potential. From a top vintage.

Bob Campbell

96 points. Deep crimson. Intense dark cherry mulberry brambly aromas with dark chocolate, mocha notes. Slinky textured wine with ample dark cherry, mulberry, cassis flavours, fine looseknit chalky tannins, very good mid palate volume and well balanced vanilla/ mocha oak. Finishes chalky firm with graphite notes. Drink now - 2030 13.5% alc

Andrew Caillard

19/20 This incredibly tasty wine comes from Stonecroft, the first winery to produce outstanding full bodied red wine from the rocky Gimblett Gravels, which were once regarded as infertile land that was suitable for nothing. How thinking changes. This wine was aged for 18 months in French oak, 33% new, and has lovely balanced alcohol of 13.5%. It reminds me of ripe, juicy plums macerated with their skins, reduced to an essence and bottled freshly. The plums on the beautiful tree I live with are beginning to ripen and have already reminded me of the beauty of stone fruit in summer and the great depths of flavour of ripe fresh fruit straight off the tree. What a gift. This wine is another fabulous example of Syrah's plummy taste. We know about rotundone - the black pepper taste in Syrah - but here's a wine that argues the case for fruit essence captured in the beauty of wine.

Joelle Thomson

Dark garnet in color, this wine smells of black cherry and dried flowers. In the mouth, wonderfully juicy flavors of black cherry and blackberry have a nice balance between fruit and the peppery saline savory qualities that keep the saliva glands gushing. Very fine, hazy tannins and excellent acidity. Just a hint of oak lingering in the finish. Spends 18 months in 33% new French oak. 13.5% alcohol. Closed with a screwcap. Score: between 9 and 9.5.

Alder Yarrow

95 points. Good deep, bold colour, white pepper overlying red and darker fruit aromas, sweetly ripe scents, the palate medium bodied and intense, focused and tautly composed, an elegant wine with a fine, seamless mouth-feel. Simply lovely.

Huon Hooke

95 Points Outstanding. Powerful bouquet, varietal and fruity, spices of place and barrel, core fruit flavours of balck currant and blue fruits, some sweet marmite and iron clay flavours. Firm and dry with an abundance of polished tannins, some baking spices and smoky wood tones layer in complexity. There’s a touch of natural pepperiness accentuated by acidity and warming alcohol. Delicious, fresh and vibrant with best drinking from late 2024 through 2033.

Cameron Douglas

It is like getting in a time machine and rewinding the clock two decades. I love the iodine and garrigue notes in this medium-weight, evocative wine. This nostalgic Syrah crackles with pagan electricity and seems brighter and bolder than ever. If you are after a wine with a rigid backbone decked with every hue of red fruit and cracked pepper imaginable, this is it. 18.5+/20

Matthew Jukes

Intensely red berry fruit on the nose toes the line between raspberry and redcurrant with a gentle floral lift. Lucent and satin-textured, with a beautiful fluidity and lightness on the palate, the palate reveals the same graceful fruit as on the nose with a grounding base of graphite and subtle sweet brown spice. Feathery, slight tannins but fresh acidity form the structural anchor.

Sarah Heller

From New Zealand's original Syrah vineyard comes an organically-grown mindblowing example that roars with classic cracked-pepper punchiness and gamey complexity. Boasting violet-scented vibrancy, juicy blueberry, dense dark cocoa and seasoned leather, layers dusted with spice, it's elegantly structured with statuesque, sinewy tannins and shows beautiful balance and every dark fruit element. It's gorgeous now but will reward patient cellaring.

Yvonne Lorkin

Michael Cooper Super Classic Wine of NZ