Syrah from Mclaren Vale, South Australia, Australia
Purchase Price: $80.00 (Restaurant)
Wine Spectator 92, Cellar Tracker 90, ElsBob 92
ABV: 16.5%
A deep purple wine of exceptional fresh black fruits and a hint of coffee on the palate. Full-bodied and bold with very approachable tannins and a poignant long finish. You should be able to enjoy this wine for many years to come. This paired magnificently with our meal of medium-rare beef filets, bake Brussel sprouts infused with cranberries, golden fried hashbrowns topped with crumbled blue cheese and bacon, finished off with a slice of Key Lime cheesecake.
An excellent fine wine at a fair price. Current retail prices range from $52-67.
The 2022 Blue Eyed Boyed is at least the 4th vintage I have enjoyed over the years. The previous ones were 2014 that I rated at 94 pts, 2016 at 91, and 2020 at 93. Other vintages carry similar ratings from other sources including the 2018 and 2019 vintages both rated at 92 pts.
Through the Grapevine: McLaren Vale takes its name from John McLaren, a surveyor who mapped the district in the 1830s. The first European settlers were a mix of discharged soldiers, free settlers from England and Scotland, German migrants fleeing religious persecution, and a handful of “ticket‑of‑leave” men; former convicts permitted to work.
The German settlers were Old Lutherans escaping a forced merger between the Lutheran and Reformed (Calvinist) churches imposed by King Frederick William III of Prussia. Those who resisted faced jail, fines, and bans on worship outside the state‑sanctioned church. Martin Luther be damned. These migrants brought with them deep agricultural knowledge, including vine‑growing and cooperage skills, and their influence still runs through both McLaren Vale and the Barossa.
By the late 1830s, vineyards were already in the ground, and by the 1850s the region was exporting wine. Shipments went not only across Australia and to New Zealand, but also to Britain, India, Singapore, and Hong Kong. An impressive reach for such a young colony.
McLaren Vale also attracted a less welcome crowd: feral bushrangers, deserters from whaling ships, and the occasional moonshiner hiding stills in the hills. The most notable outlaw associated with the area was John “Black Jack” Seaver, an escaped convict known for cattle rustling and hut robberies. He evaded capture for months by disappearing into the dense scrub and gullies around Willunga and Sellicks, McLaren’s doorstep, but eventually the law caught up with him. Exhausted or simply out of options, he surrendered without resistance.
