Review: Angove Angels Rise Vineyard Shiraz 2020. The best Angove release yet?

When I first started in the wine industry, Angove was a cask brand with a clutch of good-value, but often pretty simple, wines. I can remember twenty years ago, my Angove (or Angoves back then) rep trying diligently to push more premium wines, and it feeling decidedly awkward. But since then, with the new generations of Angove family reinventing the brand, Angove has quietly carved out a reputation for some impressive releases – especially from their McLaren Vale properties. In 2019, the family bought the Angel Gully Vineyard at Clarendon from Primo Estate, which I thought was very crafty – both times I’ve visited (once a walk around, the other a drive-by), that vineyard has felt different from the rest of the Vale. It’s cooler and more Adelaide Hills-y, which is unsurprising for a block at 270m, one of the region’s highest. The first Angove-branded releases from this ex-Primo vineyard are now landing, and they have a little specialness, too – like this Angove Angels Rise Vineyard Shiraz 2020. You’ll notice the vineyard is now called Angels Rise, and even in 2020, where shitloads of McLaren Vale Shiraz releases look a bit drying and ungenerous, this Shiraz has life. The 18 months in barrel feels like it has only helped, rather than intruding, and the wine is bottled unfined/unfiltered. Clever. There’s complexity here – a little charcuterie, molten leaf litter, olives and dark plum fruit. Oak adds an uplift, and the tannins are finely grippy with a chocolatey spiced palate. A real McLaren Vale/Adelaide Hills mashup wine (you could even call it Syrah) with impressive balance, even if the finish a teensy bit warm (hello 2020 again). I like so much.

THE VERDICT

• Best drinking: now to ten years plus
• Score (out of 20): 18.5
• Score (out of 100): 94
• Alcohol %: 14
• RRP (in $AUD): 50
• Winery website: https://www.angove.com.au/
• Would I buy it?: I'd share a bottle for sure