2015 John Duval Wines Entity Shiraz Barossa Valley 750 ml

Wine Access clients have been clamoring for more “Entity” from John Duval ever since we offered the 2007, which was greeted with a sellout and 60 perfect 5-star ratings. Our long, fruitful partnership allows us to offer the 2015 Entity, which Australian wine guru James Halliday awarded a blazing 96 points. This stunningly rich, marvelously chiseled Shiraz, “reflects — in the best sense — John Duval’s long career as the chief architect of Grange,” says Halliday. Indeed, thanks in part to Duval’s famous 16-year reign as head winemaker at Penfolds, he is, in the words of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, “an Australian wine legend.” Never has his masterful authorship been so apparent than in this release, drawn from the same hand-picked vineyards with which Duval had worked for so long. For $32.99 a bottle, if you’ve been waiting to lay down just one value Aussie Shiraz, this is it: John Duval’s “Little Grange.”

Duval crafted what the world anointed as Australia’s greatest First Growth Shiraz while at the helm of Penfolds. Going for $400 per bottle, the winery’s signature effort combined sublime black-fruit richness with miraculously age-worthy, Northern Rhône cut. When Duval took his leave from Penfolds to hang out his own Shiraz-making shingle, the critics followed close behind.

From the start, Duval’s Shiraz “Entity” stunned Halliday, Parker, Vinous, and Wine Spectator. Parker and Vinous would go on to unleash a barrage of 93- to 95-point scores, far and away the highest marks for any Shiraz in the $40 price range.

In the low-yield 2015 growing season, Duval hunted through vineyards 50-100 years old in the Ebenezer, Light Pass, Krondorf, and Eden Valley regions, snapping up only the best fruit. A late burst of heat drove ripening to the hilt, allowing Duval to blend rippling Barossa power with finesse and an astoundingly age-worthy backbone.