Glaetzer Amon-Ra Shiraz

The successful father-and-son winemaking team of Colin and Ben Glaetzer has released an impressive second vintage of Amon-Ra Shiraz from the Barossa Valley.

Influential US wine critic Robert Parker Jr awarded Colin and Ben’s  powerful 2002 Amon-Ra  Barossa Valley Shiraz with 96-100 points in his Wine Advocate review.

Parker Jr described the wine as a  "thrilling effort that emphasises fruit, texture, and extraordinary aromatics"  and noted it was one of the most compelling offerings he tasted in the  2001 and 2002 South Australian vintages. 

Amon-Ra also scored highly in the recent The Advertiser Top 100 Wines.

Wine writer Philip White awarded the wine 93 points and predicted the Shiraz "will, with time, join the ranks of a lot more famous Barossans as a serious collector’s wine".

Colin and Ben Glaetzer make wines together under the family label, Glaetzer Wines and their focus is on limited quantities of benchmark Barossa reds. The Glaetzer stable includes the flagship Glaetzer Shiraz, Bishop Shiraz, Wallace Shiraz Cabernet Grenache and Amon-Ra Shiraz.

Young gun winemaker Ben Glaetzer also makes his distinctive style of wines under the dynamic Heartland label. The rest of the Heartland team are second generation winemakers Scott Collett, fifth generation viticulturalist Geoff Hardy, vignerons John Pargeter and Gino Melino and wine industry professional Grant Tilbrook.

Ben describes this 2002 vintage of Amon-Ra as "amazingly generous yet powerful, deep and refined".

"It has a brooding aromas with plums and blackcurrants, and is on a very tight leash – it’s as black as dog’s guts!" he says.

Amon-Ra Shiraz stands out from the crowd with its striking label which depicts the "all seeing" Eye of Horos. Amon-Ra was an Egyptian pharaoh, during whose reign the first monoculture vineyard was established.