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Description
Stephen Cook’s Eisenstone label is built on the idea that Barossa Shiraz isn’t just one thing - it’s a patchwork of sub-regional expressions, each with its own personality. This single-vineyard Shiraz from Marananga is a perfect example, sourced from old vines on Roennfeldt Road, an address that’s produced some of the Barossa’s most legendary wines.
The 2022 vintage had everything going for it - low-yielding vines, hand-picked fruit, and 18 months in top-quality French oak (50% new). The result is a deep, structured, age-worthy Shiraz that captures Marananga’s signature dark fruit intensity, spice, and effortless power.
This is small-batch winemaking at its best, with only 800 individually numbered bottles produced. It’s built to last, and while it’s showing beautifully now, it’ll only get better with time.
96 points
"The incredibly stylish 2022 Shiraz McDonald Marananga SV904 is beautifully composed, with a natural, unforced generosity and even shape underpinned by a firm structure. Powerfully focused aromas of licorice and musky plum are enriched by spicy oak and followed by a bright, energetic, and tightly controlled chocolatey palate. Composure again comes to the fore and holds its shape over a long finish. The 2022 is claret-like and will age very well."
- Angus Hughson (Vinous)
96 points
"Such a lovely vibrancy and immediacy to the fruit, and the intensity is off the charts. Welcome to Marananga! Colour is deepest purple, almost black. Spices, florals, and fruit mix and whirl and lift in a seamless, unforced way. Blue fruits, red liquorice, black cherry, plum, sage, a touch of green herbals and earth, with a splash of savoury soy, dark chocolate, and cigar box – an impressively complex set of flavours – swept along with lovely, velvety, lithe tannins. The line of deep fruit intensity is just so Marananga. Still has plenty left in the tank. Give it time, if you have the patience."
- Jeni Port (Wine Pilot)
95 points
"Deep, dark red with purple tints; there are pencil-shavings aromas overlying earthy graphite and sooty black fruit. The palate is deep and wide, generous and ample, with a slight lack of shape in its profile. Very good, though, and will reward long-term aging."
- Huon Hooke (The Real Review)
