Larry Cherubino Laissez Faire Syrah 2016 ~ Western Australia, Australia

95/100 Campbell Mattinson (Halliday)
95/100 Erin Larkin (Halliday) (2019 vintage)
95/100 James Halliday (2018 vintage)
16.5/20 Jancis Robinson (2018 vintage)
92/100 Toni Paterson (2017 vintage)
94/100 James Halliday (2015 vintage)

James Halliday 5 Red Star Winery

Campbell Mattinson (Halliday) "More restrained than you might expect but it maintains a slinky smoothness and the finish sheets long. Peppercorn, black cherry and black pepper with sweet herb/mint notes and a woodsy undergrowth character. There's a ground coffee note here too but a particularly earthen version of it. Everything here suggests that this wine will develop beautifully over the medium term and beyond."

The Winemaker " A bouquet of earth, black cherries and spices with subtle mineral/s;ate quality, oak providing support. Red flowery fruits flavours dominate, with subtle slate like minerality. All framed by a light structure and fine tannis."

Erin Larkin (Halliday) "A blend of 4 clones (470, 174, 877 + Waldron) from the Riversdale vineyard. Hand-picked fruit, matured in oak for 10 months. Minimal additions. Very pretty nose, laced with red berries, star anise, szechuan peppercorn and red licorice. The palate follows suit and is silky, layered and dense! So remarkably dense. Weightless too, though ... quite a brilliant wine." (2019 Vintage)

James Halliday "Estate-grown (Riversdale Vineyard), hand-picked and sorted, matured for 10 months in French oak. This is high quality shiraz fruit handled with attention to detail. It is fragrant and juicy, long and very well balanced. Texture and structure in a medium-bodied guise, and a cornucopia of black fruits." (2018 Vintage)

Toni Paterson "Mulberry fruit and liquid dark chocolate. Gorgeous, fleshy cherry fruit on the mid-palate with an appealing earthy nuance. There is a flutter of spice running through the wine. Impressive depth" (2017 Vintage)

Larry Cherubino has had a distinguished winemaking career, first at Hardys Tintara, then Houghton, and thereafter as consultant/Flying Winemaker in Australia, NZ, South Africa, the US and Italy. All wines Cherubino produces are single region wines. The runaway success of the business has seen the accumulation of 120ha of vineyards, the appointment of additional winemakers, and Larry's own appointment as Director of Winemaking for Robert Oatley Vineyards.

Margaret River is one of the best-known wine regions in Australia, recognized internationally for the quality of its wines and the natural beauty of the region. Although originally renowned for its unusually refined Cabernet Sauvignon and intensely citrusy Chardonnay varieties, the region now produces Semillon Sauvignon Blanc blends and Shiraz.

Located in the south-western corner of Western Australia, it is famous for having a more 'European' wine style than its counterparts across Australia, owing to the regions temperate, coastal location which is very similar to that of Bordeaux.

Shiraz, also known as Syrah is a popular red wine. Though the spiritual homeland of this red grape is France, Syrah has been planted throughout the world to great success. It expresses itself differently depending on the climate, soil and regional style.

Syrah is typically bold and full-bodied, with aromatic notes of smoke, black fruit and pepper spice. Stylistically, it can be round and fruity, or dense and tannic. And in warmer New World regions like Australia, Syrah is most often be called Shiraz.

Winemakers who work in cooler-climate growing regions, both in the Old World and New World, tend to call their wines Syrah. The most famous examples come from the northern Rhône Valley of France, notably Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie. In the New World, in regions like Sonoma Coast, California; Yarra Valley, Australia; and parts of Chile, the wines are called Syrah because they emulate the leaner, acid-driven, savory styles of the Old World French classics.

Shiraz tends to come from warmer growing climates, namely the South Australian regions of Barossa, McLaren Vale and Adelaide Hills. Stylistically, these wines are lush, fruit-forward examples that embody the warmer, sunnier climate. Shiraz is so important to Australian viticulture that it is the most planted grape variety in the majority of Australian vineyards and has become virtually synonymous with the country's wine regions, and in particular the Barossa Valley.