98 Points - Erin Larkin | Very Limited Stocks Dan Standish is one of the most outstanding Barossa producers in the game today. A sixth-generation Barossan, Dan established the Standish Wine Co. in 1999. After many years refining his craft at Torbreck, he focuses on showcasing some of the Barossa's finest and most ancient sites under his label. Today his wines are some of the most sought-after of any in Australia, attracting a huge following with their seductive and devastatingly powerful styles of Barossa Shiraz. The 2024 Standish Shiraz is sourced from the Laycock Family Vineyard, Parbs Road, Greenock. Planted on own roots, in Ironstone gravel and layered schist soils over a bedrock of solid ironstone, at 314m above sea level. Its easterly aspect protects it from the afternoon sun and the gentle slope drains away any untimely excess rainfall. "98 Points. The 2024 The Standish Shiraz is typically powerful, savory, closed and spiced here. The nose leads with sweet paprika dolce, brick dust, rose petal, black cherry and licorice. Like all the 2024 Shirazes tasted today, the palate here is silky and structural. In fact, tasting these wines side by side, The Relic is more tannic, but this is firmer, in its way. This is ever the wine in the lineup that shows a clear sense of place. It tastes like the power and the shape that the Barossa effortlessly grows from the ground up. It is impressive and impactful. The 2024 The Standish Shiraz was made with fruit from the Laycock family vineyard (the fruit for the 2026 vintage is being picked today, as I stand in the winery with Dan and taste), in Greenock, with 50% whole bunches in the ferment, up from 30% last vintage. I always say that the best amount of whole bunches for me is as much as I can taste; this simple means that whole bunches from Barossa taste the same as whole bunches from Rhône, and both obscure the place in which the fruit was grown. Since that sense of place is at the heart of why I buy, drink and collect wine, I prefer it not to dominate the drinking experience. As usual, the Standish wines harness whole bunches as a tool for texture, structure and complexity but are rarely consumed by it."- Erin Larkin, Robert Parker Wine Advocate.
