Halliday Wine Companion: 2024 McLaren Vale Syrah, 97+ pts

A blend of 60/40% Seaview/Clarendon; 18% whole bunch in the blend, with 0–40% in each parcel; 15 to 20 days on skins; 40% new oak, the remainder seasoned. There’s a darkly wrought quality to this, but it’s also perfumed and open, with the fruit shining over method and inputs, and the two districts creating distinct if intermeshed layers. The Bekkers wines seem somewhat more approachable on release of late, and with no detriment to cellar potential. Black berries and plums, boysenberry, black cherry, master stock spices, salumi, sultry red and purple florals, Dutch licorice, freshly tilled earth, the oak present but already so neatly, so serenely integrated, tannins uber-fine and the weight/ripeness à point, the length exceptional. A great release.

REVIEWED: 20 July 2026