How is Chapel Hill’s new flagship red The Devil Shiraz 2020?

Chapel Hill’s Michael Fragos is a modest character. That’s a good thing in a world where many top winemakers (like wine critics) believe that the sun shines out their ass/every wine they make is bottled perfection handed down by the wine gods.

But Michael isn’t that guy. He’s the magician behind the scenes, sure, but happy to let the wines tell the story rather than wanting a children’s choir and the release of 100 white doves for each new release.

So when an email from Michael landed in my inbox, providing extra context (over and above the press release/wine info thingy) about this fresh Chapel Hill The Devil Shiraz 2020, I knew there was some winemaking/viticulture heart poured into it.

Released to commemorate the 50th Chapel Hill vintage in 2024, which Michael notes the team is ‘very excited (and proud) about’, with the devil connotation a nod to “the devil is the detail” idiom, and ‘underlines the attention to detail required both in the vineyard and winery to craft these wines’.

That starts with the House Block, the source for this red, which ‘over the past ten years we have been painstakingly reworking the 0.8-hectare block with the age-old technique of layering, so the block is now wonderfully even and healthy’.

All grape marc and stems are now mulched back into the vineyard, which ‘negates the need for synthetic fertilisers’. Fungicide regimes have also been revised to promote beneficial insects, and herbicide sprays have been swapped for spot spraying, hoeing, and more cover crops.

Now, some McLaren Vale vineyards go even further than that (like the regeneratively farmed organic Inkwell vineyard of Irina Santiago-Brown and Dudley Brown), but all the forward steps Michael outlines at Chapel Hill should be applauded.

This Devil McLaren Vale Shiraz is a bit of a beast, too. Described as the ‘most characterful and expressive wine possible’ it’s a luscious, powerful and decadent red that carries the heady stamp of 2020 and built large. Matured for 20 months in barrel, it’s all flashy chocolate cherry, dried fruit, and this exotic chocolatey dark fruit power. I see some of the 2020 vintage desiccation drying up the finish, but there’s layer after layer of lavish, intense Vale Shiraz power.

While I prefer the 2021 Road Block Shiraz, this Devil feels like exactly what you’d want and expect in a brand-new red flagship from a proud brand.

THE VERDICT

• Best drinking: now and for a decade easy
• Score (out of 20): 18
• Score (out of 100): 93
• Alcohol %: 14.5
• RRP (in $AUD): 180
• Winery website: https://www.chapelhillwine.com.au/
• Would I buy it?: a glass or two