Fowles Wine is a family owned winery located in the dramatic, high altitude granite landscape of the Strathbogie Ranges, Victoria, 90 minutes north of Melbourne. Set in the foothills of the Range, with elevations up to 600 metres, the region’s ancient granitic soils and cool climate all combine to produce produces intense, elegant wines, full of character. The Fowles’ rich family history of vignerons, hunters and farmers is embedded in their winemaking philosophy; to produce regional wines that that reflect Strathbogie provenance and craft texturally fine wines that pair with the flavours and textures of food sourced from the land.
Deep crimson in colour with hints of purple at the rim. Intense lifted aromas of ripe red berries play with notes of violet, pepper and dark chocolate. Complex forest fruits, plums, spice and velvety tannin.
95 Australian Wine Company Matured 12 months in mostly older French oak puncheons. The winemaker believes a wild ferment brings complexity and texture to a wine. Set against a particularly peppery background, the 2020 Wild Ferment shiraz delivers on both counts. Black pepper, five spice, woody spices, aniseed, blackberry, black cherry and earth. The palate is the thing, velvet-like in density, layered in concentrated Rhône-like spice-filled flavour, and finishing with its now signature long, pepper-dusted finish.
92 Vinous The intriguing 2020 Shiraz Ladies who shoot their lunch Wild Ferment is a more elegant style, offering vibrant aromas of peppery charcuterie and blackberry lifted by bush mint and well-integrated oak. It has good composure and holds its line of peppery, meaty flavor well aided by sinewy tannins through to a fresh finish.
92 James Suckling Distinctive cool-climate aromas of charcuterie, dried kelp, peppercorn and clove. The aromas are thoroughly convincing, strongly reminiscent of, say, a good Crozes-Hermitage. Plenty of floral lift and buoyancy. The tannins are a tad drying, yet there is a sinuous elegance to this finer-boned shiraz that deserves attention.
89 Wine Spectator Juicy and fresh, offering a mix of wild berry, blood orange and cranberry flavors, with an appealing firm edge to the tannins and aromatic accents of thyme, sage and white pepper on a sleek frame. Drink now. 2,500 cases made, 600 cases imported.
