We're not alone in thinking that Robert Parker can be overly effusive when it comes to a certain genre of red wine. And his colleague Jay Miller, who now reviews Australian wine for Parker's The Wine Advocate, has the same predilection for fruit-packed, muscle-bound, over-the-top reds. But we're on the same page with Parker and Miller when it comes to this wine and Torbreck offerings in general.

Torbreck Vintners is making truly great wines -- wines that express the soul of the Barossa Valley and have complexity and structure in addition to the trademark gutsy Barossa fruit. Many of these wines cost hundreds of dollars per bottle. The Woodcutter's Shiraz gives a glimmer of what Torbreck's benchmark wines accomplish. Importantly, it's available to wine lovers who don't happen to have deep pockets. We'd easily give it 92 points.
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The 2006 Woodcutter’s Shiraz was sourced from six sub-regions of the Barossa. The wine was aged for 12 months in large, neutral French oak and was bottled unfined and unfiltered. Purple-colored, it has an attractive array of pepper, spicy blackberry, black cherry, and blueberry muffin aromas. Full-bodied and opulent on the palate, the wine delivers gobs of meaty, full-flavored blue and black fruits to accompany its forward, easy-going personality. Drink this incredible value over the next 4-6 years.

Torbreck, under the leadership of owner/winemaker David Powell, remains a Barossa Valley benchmark as well as one of the world’s greatest wine estates. The top cuvees are limited production and expensive but there are also some outstanding values in the portfolio.
Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate

RP93