2011 Frankland Estate Shiraz Isolation Ridge Vineyard Frankland River 750 ml

A 5-star winery and its 95-point Shiraz

Australia’s Frankland River is half a world away from Sonoma’s Russian River. But both exert a crucial influence on winegrowing, with the Frankland River, towards the southern tip of the vast expanse of Western Australia, doing for Shiraz what the Russian River does for Sonoma’s Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Both mitigate temperatures, usher in breezes from the ocean, and help grapes retain impeccable natural acidity.

But the Frankland River runs through a unique soil scattered with ironstone gravel — key to the pronounced minerality in the wine region’s dazzling, long-lived Shiraz wines. Today’s 2011 Frankland Estate “Isolation Ridge” Shiraz is right in the pocket.  

James Halliday, the leading wine critic in Australia, has awarded Frankland Estate 5 stars — his highest rating — and lobbed an equally impressive 95-point score for the 2011 “Isolation Ridge” Shiraz. Frankland Estate keeps coming up on lists that call out the blockbuster producers of fine Shiraz. Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate never fails to include the winery among its “core of usual suspects who are doing a truly superlative job,” including recently among the “eight stellar producers who are killing-it when it comes to innovation, quality and coaxing the terroir into the bottle.”

Frankland Estate focuses on wines from single-vineyard sites with vines rooted in north- and east-facing slopes on undulating hills that are farmed organically. The ironstone soils of the appropriately named Isolation Ridge Vineyard, duplex soils of gravel and loam over a clay sub-soil, lend a dazzling minerality vein to their Shiraz, which is aged in light-grained French oak puncheons for 18 months. The result is a gorgeous balance of fruit and spice, with the minerality and acidity to age decades.

The 2011 “Isolation Ridge” is a pure, dark-fruited beauty. Opaque purple, featuring a scintillating mix of crushed black fruits, blackberry jam, violets, and earthy notes. Full-bodied and tightly knit, with generous round tannins and layers of black cherry, damson plum, and blue-fruited compote. A mouthwatering mineral vein is underscored by lofty violet notes and savory spice, with an acid-driven finish. Enjoy today for its youthful hedonism, or lay it down for a decade or more.

Elsewhere: $40. Exclusively on WineAccess at just $24.99/bottle — from the isolated cellars in far off Frankland River, direct to your doorstep. Free shipping included on 4.