2004 Clarendon Hills Astralis

Community Tasting Notes (61) Avg Score: 94.0 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View americanstorm's profile
  • Report Issue

  7/18/2023 - americanstorm Likes this wine: 96 Points

  Somewhat subdued nose of red fruits and spice. Minerals, earth and raspberry puree-- probably the most intense raspberry flavor I have ever experienced in a wine. Great mouthfeel and long finish. The 2nd red tried of 8 total and by far the wotn. About an hour in a decanter when we drank this and it was fantastic. About one full glass left in the decanter that I revisited about 4 -- 5 hours later and that had faded quite a bit. I don't think this is on the downside of its peak but I think it should be drank in the first couple of hours after putting it in a decanter. 96--97 possibly the best astralis I have had.

  3 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (2)

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View hiker_guy's profile
  • Report Issue

  7/14/2023 - hiker_guy Likes this wine:

  Needed a couple hours open to show well.
  Nose of rich vanilla and dark berry fruit
  Palate is dense dark and rich. Very long finish with a touch of spice.
  Would buy again

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View CabinConnoisseur's profile
  • Report Issue

  6/1/2023 - CabinConnoisseur wrote: 96 Points

  Clearly a top tier wine. Beautiful aroma right out of the bottle - fruit, but also perfumed with rose petal.at first, which surprised me. The aroma changes to have more traditional Aussie syrah notes - dark fruit, musk, oriental spices, a touch of menthol. The fllavor is muted out of the bottle but is going strong after a 3 hour decant: dark black, blue, and red fruit (and plenty of fruit at that), black tea, white pepper, oriental spice, other zesty spice, a touch of mandarin orange, a bit of menthol. Nice acidity, medium tannin. Full bodied for sure, long finish of pepper and spice.
  
  For my next bottle, decant 3 hours and then savor. A longer decant may be better.

  4 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (2)

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Cailles's profile
  • Report Issue

  11/23/2022 - Cailles wrote: 95 Points

  Three Aussie Shiraz side-by-side. The Astralis 2004 (95 pts) was one of the best Astralis I‘ve had to date. Often too ripe and drying out early and while ripe, this had no excess on any front and showed very elegant, with good freshness and an even slightly weightless feel. The Brokenwood Graveyard Vyd 1998 (94pts) showed well matured with lots tobacco complementing the still intact fruit core, all embedded in a fine structure. The Duval Eligo 2012 (93pts) was less layered than the others but showed a beautiful minty freshness to counter the ripe fruit core. I don‘t drink Aussie Shiraz too often but all three showed well today.
  
  TN: Intense, fine nose with dark berries, herbs and spices. Very good, very inviting. On the palate, dark berries, ripe but not too ripe, herbs, lots of spices. superb fresh, minty and dark berry finish. So long and intense. Quite great. There is very little weight, almost weightless, finely melted tannins, good freshness, fine creamy texture but not oily or cloying. Very good length. All in all a great wine with some points deducted as the level of ripeness, while not technically too ripe, is still a bit too much for my taste.
  
  Decanting: This needs about an hour in the decanter.

  6 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (2)

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View sirpat00's profile
  • Report Issue

  11/13/2022 - sirpat00 wrote: 96 Points

  Tasted blind. Not decanted and none needed. Intense but still facetted nose of black and green olives, plenty of Asian 5 spice Christmas spices. The fruit is bramble berry coupled with ripe red raspberry. But there is also a fresher herbal layer along with meaty or gamey compexity. The palate is round with a soft texture and manages to balance the full-bodied structure with aromatic intensity. It’s been 3 years since my last bottle and if anything this edged up a notch since and is still going strong with no aging notes to speak of nor any signs of maturity on the palate.

  4 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (1)

View all 61 Community Tasting Notes

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.