“Love the name Spice Garden for a vineyard; evocative. From the organic farmed estate of Alkina. Slurpy, rich, cuddly shiraz. Scents of vanilla-raspberry coulis, choc-cherry, cinnamon spice, sarsaparilla. Flavours are led with squishy ripe blackberries, some currant and raisin in the mix, sweet spice and a bit of earthy graphite character. Flows well, a layer of slow moving tannin brings in a gummy pucker. Feels pretty serious, but drinks well in youth. Balanced.”

93pts, Mike Bennie, winefront.com.au

“For the first vintage of Alkina’s Spice Garden Shiraz fruit has been chosen from blocks planted on a blend of limestone and schist based soils. The idea is to make quite a different expression of the Barossa, in a more fine and detailed style. While the wine still shows a deeply flavoured Barossa heart there is also plenty of minerality and spice adding interest. It opens as you would expect with a deep ruby colour followed by waves of berry compote and fruit pastille lifted by aromatic white pepper. There is then good generosity of fruit on the palate with slightly angular acidity which leaves the finish a little thin. It will probably fill out in time so best to leave this a few years. There is real potential here and it will be fascinating to see where this wine goes in better vintages.“

92pts, Angus Hughson, Wine Pilot