Standish Wine Co. - Vintage Vertical Tasting
"To my way of thinking, there’s not many better producers in the Barossa than Standish."
- Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
Lamella
2023 | 2022 | 2021
The Schubert Theorem
2023 | 2022
The Relic
2023 | 2022
The Standish
2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020
Saturday 19th of July
Tasting: 3-5pm:, 11 Wines with cheese platters $225
(Limited to 14 guest)
“…Dan Standish of The Standish Wine Company, who makes some of the most innovative, small-production, single-vineyard wines in Australia.”
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com
"I consider Dan Standish the reigning king of Barossa Shiraz."
Joe Czerwinski, Wine Advocate
“In the context of Australian shiraz, the Standish wines are continually regarded as being exceptionally high quality- among the very best"
- Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate
“In the right context, these are some of the finest expressions of Syrah in the world today.”
- Huon Hooke, The Real Review
“The Standish Shiraz, grown in the Barossa Valley, is rising up the collectable charts with a bullet.”
Campbell Mattinson, ‘Australia’s Most Collected Wines 2023’ Article’ campbellmattinson.com
The Wine List
1st Bracket
2023 The Standish
The 2023 The Standish Shiraz is the most "Barossan" of all the Standish cuvées. It exudes earthy brick dust tannins and layers sumac and exotic spices with roasted game and sweet marrow. There are notes of black cherry, dried rose petals, sandalwood, hung deli meat and licorice, all of it strapped to rails of grounded tannin. It's chewy, substantial and of the earth, in its way. The fruit is sourced from the Laycock family vineyard in Greenock, as always, and it expresses the red clay and loam soils there in its splay of tannic fortitude and density. This is very impressive. It is fresh yet meaty/rocky—both attractive qualities in Shiraz/Syrah.
97 Points Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate (June 2025)
2022 The Standish
Plush and perfumed aromas of dark cherries, blackberries, blueberry bush, violets and graphite. The palate is full-bodied with finely integrated tannins, precise acidity and notes of mulberries, potpourri, ferric earth and boysenberries. Densely focused with a seamless mouthfeel and almost perfect balanced. Excellent. Drink or hold.
98 Points James Suckling,jamessuckling.com (October 2024)
2021 The Standish
The 2021 The Standish Shiraz was made with fruit from the Laycock family vineyard, Greenock, with 30% whole bunches in the ferment. The Standish Shiraz was the first cuvée launched by Dan Standish in 1999, and the wine is routinely typified by its muscular tannin shape and earthy, savory fruit. The most attractive part of this wine is the splay of exotic market spice (namely sumac, black pepper, star anise and fresh cardamom) that sails in on the coattails of the red/purple fruit. It has all the exoticism and romance of a hike through the mountains of Morocco, yet it, perhaps more than any other wine in the collection, speaks of the Barossa in a clear enunciated voice.
96 points, Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate
2020 The Standish
“The Standish was noticeably more approachable (48 hours in the decanter) and reminds me a little of the 2019, albeit with a touch more charge. The bouquet is mesmerising and delivers an intoxicating mix of saturated black and blue pastille fruits, crème de mûre, mulberry, Indian ink, violet and lavender. There’s a noticeable brininess overtone to all the fruit. Sea kelp and graphite are a marriage made in heaven… The palate glides like silk – not a hair out of place. The unerring sense of purity and sensuality is overwhelming. Exquisite, in a word. My notes are flowing with more ease suggesting accessibility. That said, this still needs 5-8 years and will be at its best in 20-25 years. Full-bodied, supremely balanced - tannins are firming. The fruit is wonderfully pure, luscious, extravagant and provides a wonderful rich lacquer-feel inside of the mouth. This is an incredible release and I can sense my tasting note is gaining pace – bewildering. Polished, dark fruits in abundance, cloaked with saline, graphite, licorice and mocha. Wonderfully intense and decadent. The finish is never-ending and keeps giving. Dried, blood orange after minutes… Bloody amazing. Truly, so. Served using Zalto Bordeaux glassware.”
99-100 Points Stuart McCloskey, The Vinorium
2nd Bracket
2023 The Relic
A pop and pour taste had me excited. Perfume, silky texture, glossiness, charm and drinkability. Fine tannin profile in a sheath of silky draw, white pepper, rosy floral lift, dried rose petal indeed, with touches of stone fruit in concentrated forest berry compote and tart, red plum character. Multi-dimensional in its feel with its extreme length, almost bouncy texture, grip of very fine, quality tannin and sense of refreshment to finish. A dusting of white pepper lingers. Concentration and compact nature. Class.
96 Points, Mike Bennie, The Wine Front
2022 The Relic
The 2022 The Relic Shiraz-Viognier contains 2% Viognier skins, and this addition presents in this vintage as a core of raspberry and pomegranate. It is pure fruited and powerfully aromatic, as this cuvee always is. Interestingly, I am tasting this wine from two different glasses: one opened two days ago, one opened this morning. They are quite different, telling us once again that oxygen really is a friend to this producer, especially if choosing to drink these wines young. While the bottle opened two days ago is complete, balanced and utterly refined, it speaks more of its florals and fruit than it does its savory register of spice and complexity. However, the wine opened today has nuances of bacon fat and exotic spice. It is tightly coiled and springy and nowhere near as giving as the former. So, choose your own path. This vintage is a prettier, finer but no less long or coiled version of itself, and it will prove to be one of the greats in the cellar. The tannins certainly are a highlight for me. Built for age but also, in the framework of this beautiful season, absolutely available to you right now. An effortless beauty, here. 14.9% alcohol, sealed under natural cork. Drink 2024-2052.
98+ points, Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate
3rd Bracket
2023 Lamella
Following on from the perfect 2022 release, I find myself opening this wine with a fair bit of excitement... This is velvety and grainy, supple and pliable. The tannins are dry and silky, and they perfectly balance the intensity of sweet/spicy fruit in the mouth. This wine is a clear example of why you must back a producer over a vintage, because a good producer will triumph no matter the conditions.
98+ Points Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate (June 2025)
2022 Lamella
The 2022 Lamella Shiraz has a little secret held within, and it's one not noted on the label. Within this cuvée, is just two barrels of fruit from the Stonegarden Vineyard, the original Lamella Vineyard, before the current Huttonvale Farm. Stonegarden was planted in the Eden Valley in the middle 1800s and is a historic site. The wine rises with Chinotto and blood orange, black tea and pressed flowers. It is, in its quiet way, kaleidoscopic and mottled ... it does not stay still, it gently moves across the palate like sunlight over the course of a day. The long finish speaks of raspberry pip and sandalwood, pomegranate, Boscobel rose and even the softest suggestion of scraped vanilla pod. If you have the benefit of time, I would recommend tasting this on both day one and day two. As I see it, day two has all of the complexity of day one, with the added seamlessness and silk that only time can bring. This is the most alluring Lamella I can recall ever tasting on release, despite many previous releases' flirtation with perfection. 100% whole bunch. 14.9% alcohol, sealed under natural cork and wax.
100 Points Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate (May 2024)
2021 Lamella
The 2021 Lamella Shiraz is made with fruit from the Angas family vineyard, Hutton Vale Farm, Eden Valley. The vineyard was planted with cuttings from the Mt Edelstone (Henschke) vineyard and represents the final pick of the season each year. Made with 100% whole bunches in the ferment, the wine opens with characteristic jasmine tea, bergamot, raspberry, graphite and star anise on the nose. The whole-bunch component, far from overtaking the fruit, is seamlessly integrated from the first instance this year. The wine is a cohesive whole and shows an elegance and presence that is beguiling, to say the least. If anything, the 2021 Lamella is full of aching potential; its future is writ upon the balance of fruit and skin/stalk tannin, freshness and density. For lovers of this cuvée, I cannot recall seeing it so balanced and poised on release. The 2018 (a vintage I reference constantly for its high quality and fruit presence) may challenge this statement, however the cool vintage that birthed the Lamella this year has produced a wine of definition and untold potential. Super. Sealed under natural cork. 14.9% alcohol.
98+ Points Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate (May 2024)
4th Bracket
2023 The Schubert Theorem
The 2023 The Schubert Theorem Shiraz is a gorgeous wine. It is silky, inky, pure, black as the ace of spades and long through the finish... It has rose petals, detail and delicacy, power and precision. Standish performs somewhat like a Burgundian producer—he works with one grape (I suppose two, if you count the small inclusion of Viognier in the Relic) to express different vineyard sites, soil types and elevations. There's no "declassified" fruit in these wines, no flow-on opportunities to other cuvées, just "make or break" viticulture and winemaking. The ancient terroir of the Barossa is writ large in these wines. It is striking. This 2023 Schubert, despite the cool and wet conditions, is a testament to Standish's clarity of vision.
98 Points Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate (June 2025)
2022 The Schubert Theorem
I'm excited to taste this, as it was my favorite cuvée last year. It usually changes year to year, given the seasons, and I like that. It's usually the only cuvée to enjoy the benefits of an alternate vessel—a concrete egg—and this year, the 2022 The Schubert Theorem Shiraz joins the Relic and the Standish as well. The impact of the egg in this wine is one of refinement, or so I see it; it retains a purity of fruit at the core, which speaks to the chalky tannins that spool through the finish. They're chewy and seductive and really great. It's a beautiful release—not shimmering like the 2021, but textural and fine and elongated in its way. It's a beguiling wine, a thinking wine. And, as with the other wines tasted alongside, the bottle that has been open for two days is infinitely more complete; however, it must be noted that this review is built on the freshly opened bottle. 14.9% alcohol, sealed under natural cork and wax.
98+ Points Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate (May 2024)