2019 The Armagh Shiraz

The single-varietal 2019 The Armagh Shiraz is deep garnet-purple in color. Notes of Indian spices, baked blackberries, and plum pudding spring from the glass, followed by hints of garrigue, cracked black pepper, and candied violets. The medium to full-bodied palate is bright and lively, with bags of expressive black fruits, finishing long and spicy.
95/100 Lisa Perrotti-Brown; The Wine Independent

Powerful, with smoked earth, juicy damson fruit, bitter black chocolate, pomegranate, luscious and enticing, with fragrant spice of anis and fennel. This was a warm vintage with low yield of around 15hl/h, but the tannins were clearly extremely well handled, giving a gentle insistence to this wine that refuses to go away, and yet never overpowers. Aged entirely French oak (as it had been from the 2017 vintage) with vines that at this point were more than 50 years old. Tom Barry winemaker, bottled unfiltered and unfined.
98/100 Jane Anson

Jim Barry The Armagh Shiraz 2019 (Clare Valley; 100% Shiraz; 14.1% alcohol). From old-vine Shiraz – most of it over 50 years of age now. Slightly volatile and a little reductive on the nose. Saline and distinctly ferrous in its minerality. Big, ripe, plump and meaty – with a mix of game and charcuterie notes accompanied by plenty of exotic spices. Punchy. Yet more lithe, limpid – even crystalline – in the mid-palate than you might imagine. Needs time; a bit of a bruiser; and strangely volatile on the finish at this stage.
94/100 Colin Hay; The Drinks Business