About
Wines that reflect location, accent and the seasons of each vintage, Koomilya is a faithful record of what has passed and still endures.
Producing single site wines, the established vineyard was named after a mid-19th century lugger that traversed between South Australia and the then emerging state of Western Australia – a symbolic reflection of winemaker Stephen Pannell’s connection to the two states; one of his youth and one now being the place he calls home.
As Stephen and Fiona Pannell’s first vineyard, Koomilya has been the realisation of a long-held vision to create modern Shiraz which harks back to a tradition of what McLaren Vale Shiraz looked like in the 1960s.
Wedged between the original Upper Tintara vineyard – planted by the famous Doctor Kelly in 1862, and the Hope Farm or Seaview vineyard established in the early 1850s by George Manning, Koomilya’s landscape and microclimate first captured the winemaker’s heart in December 1994 while Stephen was working with BRL Hardy.
Despite visiting hundreds of vineyards across the globe, it was Koomilya that continued to call. Having expressed his wishes to one day own the vineyard should the then owner Don Cant ever look to sell, it was in late 2012 that the opportunity arose for Stephen and Fiona to become the new custodians of the 35 hectare property and so to the chance to regenerate an old Shiraz vineyard amongst an ancient landscape.
Staying true to their belief that wine should reflect place, the vineyard has been farmed organically since its purchase, with weeds and feral olives removed by hand to allow native flora such as rare orchids and majestic old gum trees to reclaim the space.
Conserving the landscape is a priority for the Pannell family as they focus on regenerative measures and Biochar – taking the waste from the olive trees, and returning it to the soil as charcoal to improve soil structure, water-holding capacity and increase mycorrhizal fungi, assisting nutrient uptake of the vines. Cultivation is kept to the bare minimum allowing the build up of humus and micro flora, and only recycled water is used for irrigation.
And while these methods take time, the wines produced from this landscape have strength, intensity and glorious grape tannins which wind the palate together, taking you to the heart of the vineyard and its history, which dates back to the late 1850s.
“The vine is a magnifying glass for the landscape and to produce wine that tastes like the place, we must preserve the landscape and touch it lightly.”
“The protection of regional, vineyard and even single block characteristics becomes the most important factor in your winemaking decisions”
“I think all great wines obey a set of rules, and the most important of these is that wine should have a sense of place.”
2021 Releases
2021 Cabernet Touriga
Upon purchasing the vineyard in 2012 I saw it as an ideal place to create blends that included grape varieties I believe will see McLaren Vale into the future, and further, complement the traditional varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.
I grafted two contoured and terraced blocks on deep red soil closest to the scrub at the top of the south-facing slope to Touriga Nacional with the intention of blending with Tempranillo, Graciano and Mataro. Blending with Cabernet Sauvignon was never planned, but as fate would have it, there is a magic between the two varieties that can’t be ignored.
Flavour
Raspberry leaf, pink jelly crystals, split red wood, star anise and black currants are matched by an oyster shell texture that builds and builds again before a glossy crescendo, and a wall of fruit that slowly disassembles and forces you to swallow.
Texture
A joyous riot that will bamboozle and polarise. Cabernet Sauvignon needs Touriga Nacional!
Cellaring
10+ years. Best decanted an hour before drinking.
Winefront Review by Gary Walsh
Posted on 20 September 2024
'I often think that Touriga would be a good name for an SUV.
The Touriga rides high here giving the wine a Port-like violet perfume, raspberry, blackcurrant, a jubey pop of fruit, five spice and oyster shell and new car smell (leather seats, a given). It’s fleshy and plump, a bouncy amount of ripe dark fruit, quite some mouth-perfume, plush velour tannin, juicy and jellied to close, and long with it. Such fun. So interesting and distinctive. I love it.'
95 Points
Review by Halliday Wine Companion
'There’s something agreeably old school about this, but it’s also clearly the product of a refined approach, in both vineyard and winery. When I say old school, I’m going back much further than what we generally regard as such. It feels bygone, in a very good way. Oak performs a function, but it doesn’t headline, fruit is ripe but not pushed. Plush blue and red florals, liqueur cherry, dark chocolate, toasted malt, licorice, caraway, so much iodine and kelp, like wintery sea-lashed rocks, a fresh blueberry levity, lavender and ground fresh rosemary, a cabernet leafiness levelling. Complex, layered and abundant, but savoury with it. What a lovely bottle this is.'
97 Points
Review by James Suckling
'More spine and ferrous backbone than the shiraz. A little rustic gristle, but blue fruit, spruce and alpine coolness are melded to flowers turned up high. Considerable length and intrigue. Steely, a bit drying, but for those of us who admire structure, body and tension over obvious fruit, this delivers in spades. Almost Italianate by virtue of its dry structural focus.'
94 Points
Review by The Wine Advocate
'The 2021 Cabernet Touriga is leafy, laden with tobacco and cassis, violets and lifted perfume. In the mouth, the wine is succulent and gently chewy, with medicinal herbs, dusty kicked earth, cardamom pod, amaro-esque herbs and tapenade. An enduringly complex and interesting wine to behold. As usual for Steve Pannell, it is imbued with a profusion of natural-feeling tannins that shape the wine in the mouth and through the finish. While the wine has rustic persuasions, both aromatically and in the flavor profile, the finish is long and clean.'
93 points
2021 GT Block Shiraz
A single block Shiraz from 33-year-old vines grafted on Gewurztraminer planted in 1974 by Jill and Don Cant, the previous owners. Grown on ancient, dark grey slaty siltstone laminated with ironstone facing South at an altitude of 116m. The last block to be restored to health, GT stands for grafted or Gewurztraminer, take your pick.
Flavour
Dark perfume appears on the palate and builds in tension and charm. Supple flavours start high and slowly descend before tumbling down a silky finish.
Texture
Pomegranate molasses stir the tannins into a dervish of sweet red flavour, and remind us all to dance with someone we love. Full of life and vigour.
Cellaring
Set up for a long life, cellar with confidence. Best decanted an hour before drinking.
Winefront Review by Gary Walsh
Posted on 21 September 2024
'A single block Shiraz from 33-year-old vines grafted on Gewurztraminer planted in 1974.
This is a distinctive wine, and yes, we often say it, but it seems the Shiraz carries the memory of the Gewurtz of its roots. Purple fruit, rose oil and musky perfume, some exotic spice, Turkish apricot and some dried fruit character, but also juicy raspberry too. It medium to full-bodied, dark and juicy, has immaculate fine-grained tannin, surprisingly cool clean acidity, and a distinctly stony and ‘mineral’ feel, with a supple dark red fruit finish of superb length, offering a flourish of perfume and spice to close. Superb wine.'
96 Points
Review by Halliday Wine Companion
'Native ferment with 20% whole bunches and 16 days on skins; maturation in a 2800L oak vat. Although the most lifted and fragrant of the Koomilya shiraz triad, this has the same drive and effortless power, and at relatively modest alcohol. Musky, dusky florals, panforte spicing, dried orange peel, blackberry pastille, salumi, coal dust, iron, black coffee and fresh cherry pulp. This is the least upholstered of the block trio, which is neither here nor there, but there is a certain drive and relative lightness that distinguishes it as something quite individual, and also quite special.'
96 Points
Review by James Suckling
'This wine is typical of Koomilya in terms of its iodine, anise and blueberry notes, but without the dramatic mid-palate sweetness of other wines from this site. And yet in this instance, the tannins feel even firmer, with a salt, kelp and licorice frame. This will age very well. A true exploration of a great terroir.'
97 Points
Review by The Real Review
'Lovely savoury complexities: dried herbs and earthy touches, medium bodied palate with fine drying tannins and a focused, long lasting palate of impeccable balance.'
92 Points
Review by The Wine Advocate
'The 2021 Koomilya GT Shiraz leads with a perfumed nose of violets and blood plums, raspberry, cherry and strawberry. The palate is shaped by a sway of silty tannin that underpins the score of fruit. Classy wine and gently minty and a little sappy, with dried rosemary, blackberry, licorice, resin, leather strapping and graphite. As usual for the SC Pannell wines, the masterful tannins are the highlight here for me. Chewy and supple.'
93 Points
2021 DC Block Shiraz
A single block Shiraz from 49 year old vines grown on ancient, dark grey slaty siltstone soils flecked with ironstone facing south-east at an altitude of 108m. The DC Block is named for Don Cant, the previous owner, and was the first single block wine released from the vineyard.
Flavour
Power and punch, ready to go a few rounds and buzzing at a different frequency to its siblings. Pomegranate, cranberry and boysenberry freshness support sandalwood and pie crust.
Texture
A coiled, deep well of fruit bound by savoury textural tannins that build in ever more powerful waves. The ultimate contradiction of lightness and weight, elegance and power – the goal.
Cellaring
As long as you can resist; try for more than fifteen. Best decanted an hour before drinking.
Winefront Review by Gary Walsh
Posted on 21 September 2024
'D.C. puts me in mind of the song by Died Pretty. Ron Peno was hardly a visual feast, but this wine is something of a gustatory one. 49 year old vines.
Black fruit, black tea, black olive, but also has a lilac perfume, and maybe some ginger snap biscuit. It’s full-bodied, dense and ferrous, rolls like thunder on the palate, with superb inky tannin, a twist of iodine, manages to be dry and savoury while offering ample fruit sweetness, some red, some blue, some black, and the finish is very long, with chamois-like tannin stamping it with the seal of high quality wine. A beautiful and distinctive expression of Australian Shiraz. Yes.'
96 Points
Review by Halliday Wine Companion
'Native ferment, with 16 days on skins; maturation in a 2300L oak vat. This with a certain succulence allied with tension, a play of sour cherry spiced with caraway, tart raspberry confiture, red plum, haunting warm spices, orange-fruity coffee grounds, umeboshi, dried mint and bitter chocolate, and all feeling of fruit, of place, the winemaking subservient. The fruit swoops in on the palate, expansive but serene, with ripples of texture, tannins extracted masterfully, caressing, savoury but not drying, quietly commanding. Brilliant.'
97 Points
Review by James Suckling
'A historic site of old vines and meager, low-yielding soils. The wines are perfumed and immaculate, with no lack of structural components. They have the capacity to age, but most of all a winning toothsomeness demanding a revisit to the glass. Notes of rosewater, yet nothing candied. Red and Bing cherries, tangerines, lilacs and dried lavender. It grows in juiciness and sap across a brilliant finish.'
96 Points
Review by The Real Review
'Very deep, bright red-purple colour; rich dark berry and bitter cherry aromas, concentrated, powerful and long on the palate. An arresting wine of profound and beguiling flavour, dimension and drive. Has a great future if cellared.'
97 Points
Review by The Wine Advocate
'The 2021 Koomilya DC Block Shiraz leads with a distinct perfume of roasted meat crust, sweet beetroot, red earth, raspberry pip, pomegranate molasses, red apple and dried herbs. In the mouth, the wine is minty and layered with kirsch and blood orange, persuasions of tapenade and leather, rose petals, granite and black fruit, with lashings of paprika tannins that feel eminently earth derived. This is the pick of the bunch for me here today, with amplitude and grunt in equal measure.'
95 Points
2021 JC Block Shiraz
A single block Shiraz from 49 year old vines grown on ancient, dark grey slaty siltstone rich in ironstone rubble, facing south-west at an altitude of 120m. The JC Block is named for Jill Cant, the previous owner, and was the first block Stephen worked with on the vineyard during his tenure as Chief Red Winemaker at Hardy's.
Flavour
Powerful tannins supported by the ferruginous flavours typical of Upper Tintara: cocoa, bitumen, terracotta, the Aussie bush, dark red fruits.
Texture
Ionian purple and waves of dark blue – Luxury wine that seems to expand beyond the confines of the palate on an unending finish.
Cellaring
An heirloom wine and classic vintage, cellar for twenty. Best decanted an hour before drinking.
Winefront Review by Gary Walsh
Posted on 21 September 2024
'The three Shiraz wines from Koomilya are all pretty much equal in quality, I feel, but all have something different to say. The GT is perhaps the outlier, in terms of texture and flavour profile, but what a set of wines they are. And more importantly, they are sensitively made, so that vineyard is the headline act, not oak or other winemaking artifice. I wish there were more wines like them.
Blackcurrant and blackberry coulis, aniseed, subtle gum leaf perfume, along with floral top notes, chamomile tea perhaps, dark chocolate and spice. It’s full bodied, but fresh, and it’s a little brighter and more vibrant in nature than the brooding DC, the tannin is rich and ferrous and melts in the mouth like high quality dark chocolate, and there’s an almost pippy cranberry crunch to acidity, and the finish is so long and beautifully textured. Wow. What a wine.'
97 Points
Review by Halliday Wine Companion
'Native ferment with 16 days on skins; maturation in a 2300L oak vat. There really are no other wines that taste like the Koomilya shiraz triad, being utterly individual and beguiling wines of place. This, my pick of the vintage. The three block wines are kindred but aptly singular, this with some of the succulence and girth of the DC and the relative levity of the GT, bound with more spice and intense compression than either. Deep, brooding, almost bottomless, but it’s no cudgel. Dusky red fruits and florals, a deep red cherry scent, blood and iron, licorice, tar, turned humus-rich soil, dried hardy herbs, and an invigorating sour-fruit-flavoured twang escorting the supple fruit with sublimely fine, grapey tannins. It’s one heck of a wine.'
98 Points
Review by James Suckling
'This wine has iron-clad tension and rusty gristle set in firm relief against soaring florals, aromatic tea leaves, spices and boysenberries. The tannins are firm, but with such generosity to the fruit that the whole is immaculately poised. A glorious, absolutely unique expression of full-bodied shiraz.'
97 Points
Review by The Real Review
'Deep, bright purple-red colour, with a rich, sweet-fruit core, loaded with dark fruits and fine powdery tannins. A gorgeous shiraz indeed, velvet smooth and seductively fruit-sweet, with cleansing savouriness to finish thanks to those beautifully sculpted tannins.'
96 Points
Review by The Wine Advocate
'The 2021 Koomilya JC Shiraz is inky and black on the nose, with graphite and “fresh from the box” lead pencil, arnica, dark chocolate and blackberry. In the mouth, the wine is succulent and fresh, infused with green inflections—moss, mint, mulch, grass clippings, et al.—and grounded by red, earthy, shapely tannins. Raspberry pip and watermelon, black cherry and licorice. Impressive wine, this is packed with nooks and crannies of flavor. Blackcurrant pastille is the enduring flavor through the finish, and I am reminded of exactly this by the packet of wine gums (fruit gummies) irresponsibly consumed yesterday.'
94 Points
(Image: DC, GT, JC, CP... Our Shiraz and Cabernet blocks from a birdseye view / @koomilya)