Medium-deep garnet-purple in color,
Torzi Matthews' 2008 Frost Dodger Shiraz has an intensely fragrant nose of
roses and violets over notes of red currant, black raspberry, thyme, sage and
humus. Full bodied with a medium level of fine-grained tannins, it has crisp
acidity and a long finish. Drinking now, it should cellar through 2017. Lisa
Perrotti-Brown The Wine Advocate Dec 2011
Employing a traditional Italian method of drying fruit on racks to concentrate
its juice before crushing, this wine is a regular in our best picks; here the
2008 is rich, ripe and bold with sweetly spiced berry compote that still
doesn't lose its bright - lights of blueberry and mulberry fruit electricity. Top
100 Wines Adelaide Advertiser Nov 2010
It has lovely dried herb perfumes, is soft, round and fleshy, with ripe, sweet
redcurrant pastille and dark plum flavours, before a finish that gently grips,
and lingers. 2011 Quaff Peter Forrestal Great Red Wines Over $15
Solid red-purple; has the Torzi Frost Dodger DNA written large on the bouquet
and palate, with its interwoven black fruits, spice, leather and licorice
characters rising to a crescendo on the finish. 94 Points. James Halliday
July 2010
Opaque purple. An intensely spicy bouquet displays scents of blackberry, cherry
compote and smoky Indian spices. Powerful dark fruit flavors are surprisingly
lithe on the palate, with fine-grained tannins lending gentle grip and
structure. The spicy note repeats on the impressively long finish, along with
notes of black cardamom and violet pastille. Stephen Tanzer July 2010
Lots of flavour - naturally. Deceptive amount of fine, ripe tannin too. It
tastes of boysenberries and licorice, tar and assorted dried flowers. It’s
lavishly perfumed and feels soft on your tongue, though the more you taste it
the more the wine’s tannin structure impresses itself. A ‘yum’ wine, for sure.
It has some sweet, toffeed characters too, but that’s part of the wine’s
shtick. I like this release. Campbell Mattinson Winefront March 2010
Jancis Robinson: "As you may know by now, I do get cross when
people dismiss Australian wine as a slick, soulless, corporate, technological
construct. Domenic Torzi is typical of the new generation of Australian wine
artisans, hand-making wine from a small patch of vines, taking an extraordinary
risk by planting vines in a frost pocket on the gentle slopes of Mt McKenzie in
the Eden Valley because he and his partner Tracy Matthews were convinced that
the naturally low yields on the poor soils here and the particular flavours
were worth risking the frosts that had driven those who originally planted
vines here in the early 20th century away. Their ten hectares of vines went
into the ground in 1996 and Domenic, from an Italian family that settled on the
Adelaide Plains in the 1950s and have been making olive oil, and wine for home
consumption, for some time, was anxious to get to grips with a really special
piece of land. So much is made of the Barossa and to a lesser extent Clare
Valleys that the beautiful Eden Valley, its unpaved roads lined with gums, is
often overlooked. Yalumba and Henschke are the king and queen. Torzi Matthews
is definitely an upstart serf
Torzi Matthews Frost Dodger Shiraz 2008 is $33 per
bottle - click here to buy online