"There's freshness and vitality to the ‘21 pinots from Narkoojee."
Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion
NARKOOJEE – TOP 5 RED STAR WINERY The 2024 edition of Halliday Wine Companion, released 3rd August 2023 has again rated Narkoojee Wines a Top 5 Red Star Winery, with a red name. This rating is for an ‘outstanding winery regularly producing wines of exemplary quality and typicity', and places Narkoojee among the top 14.8 % of Australian Wineries. Once again Narkoojee is proud to be one of only two wineries in Gippsland to have received such an honour. Reinforcing the Halliday rating is that by The Real Review, headed by Huon Hooke in Sydney, which also gives Narkoojee a ‘Top Wineries of Australia’ rating. Halliday Wine Companion: 13 Wines, Gold and Silver Thirteen wines were reported in the 2024 Wine Companion with 3 gaining gold medal awards and the remaining 10, silver medals. Again this underscores Narkoojee’s reputation as a winery maintaining a very high quality across all of its wine portfolio. Chief Winemaker Axel Friend and his very skilled vineyard and winemaking teams deserve special mention for these superb accolades.
GOLD MEDALS
2021 Reserve Pinot Noir
'...full of chinotto, blood orange...with some fresh herbs. The palate is quite refined, accommodating tangy acidity and fine tannins. Its also moreish and appealing in every way.' ORDER NOW
2021 Valerie Pinot
'Dark cherries abound and so too Middle Eastern spices...adding lovely complexity...with velvety tannins...and then a burst of sweet fruit and tangy acidity to close.' ORDER NOW
2021 Chairman's Selection, Peter's Pinot Noir
'...made in honour of outgoing Chairman Peter Sheehan. Morello cherries, ripe black cherries, menthol and cranberry tang, woody spices with the oak well knitted into the wine...expressive and distinctly Narkoojee.' ORDER NOW
SILVER MEDALS
2021 Four Generations Merlot 'Every so often a merlot comes along to delight and surprise... Yep, this is one.' 2021 Reserve Chardonnay 'The fruit here is very good...Full bodied thanks to cedary/vanilla oak and creamy lees.' 2021 Pinot Noir 'Tannins almost gentle, soft and supple, while sweet juicy fruit creeps across the palate.' 2021 Reserve Maxwell Cabernet 'Leafy fragrance mingling with cassis… lots of tangy, tart fruit with persimmon-like tannins.' 2021 The Harry Shiraz 'Lots of dark fruit and spices, menthol and licorice, cedary, sweet vanillin wood.' 2021 Valerie Shiraz 'Rich and ripe, densely packed with macerated, spiced fruit, toasty oak.'
2021 Lily Grace Chardonnay 'Lemon butter and ginger cream, … fresh acidity, … all appealing and good drink for sure.'
2021 Valerie Chardonnay 'Full flavoured, rich and ripe, … sweet stone fruit, baked apple cake with clotted cream.' 2021 Valerie Viognier 'Lots of spiced stone fruit, apricot kernel, lemon-vanilla cream… full bodied with enough acidity to keep this afloat.' 2021 Isaac Reserve Shiraz 'An excellent dark purple-red hue and a mass of fruit flavour from dark plum and cherries to blueberries.'
Further reviews
2021 Pinot Noir
This wine is also reviewed in Nick's Wine merchants online newsletter, where it received 95 points which is a great score indeed for an entry level wine.
The tasting notes read in part: 'Semi-translucent red to dark red colour... The nose leads with alluring scents of violet, cherry, strawberry and rhubarb, interwoven with dried herb, game and spicy cedar notes...Silken in its feel...it finishes with...plenty of moreish appeal to the long ending.'
For the sake of brevity, several passages have been omitted from this quote, which is packed with generous praise.
2021 Chairman's Selection, Peter's Pinot Noir
This wine will also appear in the 'Top Reds' mini-mag supplement to the Halliday Wine Companion magazine, due for release in October/November this year. ORDER OUR AWARD-WINNING WINES TODAY
Click here for the Halliday Wine Companion website