Sami-Odi is a small winery in the Barossa Valley producing the smallest about of Syrah at the highest quality by winemaker Fraser McKinley. Grapes come from separate selected pots across the Barossa using organic principles and sometimes blending across barrels, sites, and vintages.

This is so good. It’s not just the shape of the wine, the inviting perfume, the cornucopia of flavours, but the general sense of compulsion to drink. And drink. Violets, exotic spice, game meat, pepper/dried green herb and dark berries/plums greet from the bouquet. A suppleness up front in the palate, that soothing swish of dark fruit, cool acidity, then light peppery spice weaves its way in and there’s the detail… earth, mineral, elemental things, and a shuffle of ultra-fine, high class threads of velour tannin. Elegance might be a good word but the depth of flavour, grunty, red-earth-on-blue-King-Gee-work-shirt character and dripping generosity of true-blue Barossa is peering under the veil of the wine. Hard to find better from the region. Date: Jan 2019; Alcohol: 13.9%; Closure: Cork; Drink: 2019-2028+; Rated: 97+ Points; Mike Bennie; The Wine Front