Rather one-note and dull with lots of sweet, slightly candied red fruited flavours and not a whole lot else going on. There's just enough acidity to keeps it from being cloying, but it comes across rather soft and unstructured.

Incredibly ripe aromas, a scent of cherry liqueur and vanilla, and a palate presence that feels incredibly dense, extracted, and heavy with little structure beneath the very ripe red and dark fruit. There's a long finish, but also some finishing heat.

Smells like Robitussin and doesn't taste a whole lot better with lots of ripe red and dark fruit that has a confected sweetness, and a heavy, monolithic palate presence.

Also smells like Robitussin and tastes like raspberry candy with an unpleasant artificial sweetness. There's a fair bit of tannin on the back end that adds a finishing bitterness, and it's a quick trip to the spit bucket.

The least offensive of the Donelan wines so far; the fruit here is more moderate and relatively austere compared to the other Syrahs. This is still rather extracted, but it's dominated by a wall of tannin and the fruit has a more savoury tinge to it, rather than the candied/cough syrupy elements marking the other wines. Not quite as bad, but still not particularly pleasant.

Tastes and smells like black cherry flavoured cough syrup. Also massively ripe, extracted and dense, showing plenty of tannin but barely any acidity, and as a result it feels incredibly heavy handed and tiring to drink.

More complexity here in the other Donelan Syrahs; there's a faint peppery edge around the ripe plummy and black cherry fruit, and while it's very ripe, it at least doesn't have the candied or syrupy aspects that I found so offputting in most of the other Syrahs. There's a roasted characteristic to the aromatics though, and again it's quite lacking in acidity, coming across heavy handed and monolithic.

The aroma suggests there's almost enough oak here to furnish my living room. Once past the overwhelmingly oaky fragrance, the core of dark fruited flavours beneath is actually quite fresh and bright with a minty/herbal tinge that adds complexity, and a polished palate presence with fine grained tannins and surprisingly bright acids. It's not too bad, and I get the feeling that I'd quite enjoy this wine if it weren't for the monstrous oak treatment. But right now, pass.