2024 Collector Wines Marked Tree Red Shiraz | 95 Point Canberra District Shiraz

🔥 95 Point Canberra Shiraz | One of the Most Exciting Shiraz Buys in Australia

This wine absolutely blew me away.

Perfumed. Spicy. Silky. Savoury. Incredibly composed. And seriously underpriced for the quality in the bottle.

95 Points – Halliday Wine Companion | 95 Points – The Real Review

🥇 Gold Medal – 2025 Canberra & Region Wine Show

Exceptional Canberra District Shiraz | Perfume, Spice, Elegance & Extraordinary Value

There are wines you taste, appreciate and move on from. Then there are wines that stop you in your tracks. This is one of them.

And for me, that's the story of the 2024 Collector Wines Marked Tree Red Shiraz.

One of My Wines of the Year

I recently tasted around 200 wines.

There were probably only about 15 wines from the entire tasting that I thought were compelling enough that I wanted to buy them for Liquid Vibe.

This was the wine that stood above them all.

I even tasted it alongside Collector's significantly more expensive Reserve Shiraz.

The Reserve is beautiful.

But I'd buy this.

And that's before we start talking about the price.

The combination of quality, complexity, drinkability and value here is extraordinary.

I took several winemakers with me and made sure they tasted it as well.

Every one of them agreed.

This was one of the wines of the tasting.

And I Don't Say This Lightly…

There are three Australian Shirazes I absolutely love:

Clonakilla O'Riada

Luke Lambert Syrah

Altera Terra Syrah

These are benchmark wines for me.

And saying another wine is better than those is not something I'd normally do.

But I think this is.

That's how impressed I am by the 2024 Marked Tree Red.

95 Points – Halliday Wine Companion

Jane Faulkner was equally impressed.

She awarded the wine:

95 POINTS

describing a beautifully poised Shiraz with exotic spice, florals, fleshy fruit, pepper and savoury complexity, carried by silky tannins and lively acidity into a long finish.

Her opening words say plenty:

“What a beautiful shiraz. Everything just so.”

That's exactly it.

Everything is in the right place.

Nothing dominates.

Nothing feels forced.

Nothing is overdone.

95 Points – The R Review

Huon Hooke also awarded the wine:

95 POINTS

and called it:

“A really stylish shiraz and remarkable value.”

Hooke found red and dark fruits, spice, subtle smoky reduction and a hint of cola, with beautifully judged tannins providing both structure and immediate drinkability.

Again, that's the magic here.

It's serious without being difficult.

Complex without being heavy.

Structured without being hard.

Immediately delicious without being simple.

Gold Medal – Canberra & Region Wine Show

As if two 95-point reviews weren't enough, the wine also collected:

🥇 GOLD MEDAL

at the 2025 Canberra & Region Wine Show.

So we're starting to see a pattern.

This isn't just me getting carried away with a bottle I loved.

Everyone seems to be arriving at the same conclusion.

This is seriously good Shiraz.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Vibrant crimson-purple with excellent depth while retaining the brightness you'd expect from cool-climate Shiraz.

Aroma: Absolutely gorgeous. Dark cherry, blackberry and ripe red fruit explode from the glass alongside black pepper, aniseed, exotic spices and florals. There's also a subtle smoky, meaty reduction adding another layer of savoury complexity.

Palate: Medium-bodied, energetic and beautifully composed. There's lovely flesh to the fruit, but never excess weight. Cherry and blackberry are joined by pepper, spice and savoury notes, with the whole-bunch character adding perfume and complexity.

Texture: This is one of the things I love most. The tannins are silky, fine and beautifully judged, while the acidity keeps the wine lively and incredibly drinkable.

Finish: Long, refreshing and wonderfully persistent. Fruit, pepper, spice and savoury complexity continue well after the wine leaves the palate.

It's just beautifully put together.

Murrumbateman – Classic Canberra Shiraz Country

The Marked Tree Red is made from hand-worked parcels of Shiraz sourced from vineyards in and around Murrumbateman in the Canberra District.

The soils are a mixture of:

Granite & Shale

and those sites give Alex McKay fruit capable of producing both perfume and elegant structure, while retaining the savoury texture and richness that gives the wine depth.

This is exactly what makes Canberra Shiraz so compelling.

It's not Barossa Shiraz.

It's not McLaren Vale Shiraz.

It's cooler.

More aromatic.

More peppery.

More savoury.

More medium-bodied.

More about perfume, spice and structure than sheer weight.

The 2024 Vintage

The 2023/24 growing season was particularly kind to Shiraz in the Canberra District.

A moist spring and summer maintained vine health, followed by temperate late-summer conditions that allowed the grapes to ripen gradually and without excessive stress.

Collector says the resulting Shiraz fruit showed excellent:

Spice

Flesh

Density

Backbone

And that's exactly what you see in the finished wine.

There's concentration.

But also freshness.

Hand-Harvested. Whole Bunch. French Oak.

The grapes were:

Hand harvested

between 12.5 and 13.5 Baumé.

Fermentation took place in open fermenters with:

Whole bunches

with the ferments worked to extract flavour and tannin.

Individual parcels then underwent malolactic fermentation before maturation in a combination of new and seasoned Allier and Tronçais oak.

The final wine was blended and bottled in November 2025.

And alcohol?

Just 13%.

That tells you plenty about the style.

This isn't about alcohol or brute force.

It's about flavour without weight.

Alex McKay – One of Canberra's Great Shiraz Winemakers

Winemaker Alex McKay has an extraordinary understanding of the Canberra District.

He worked with Canberra wine pioneer Edgar Riek before returning to the region in 2000 to become winemaker at Hardy's Kamberra winery. That role gave him extensive experience with vineyard parcels throughout Canberra, Hilltops, Gundagai and Tumbarumba.

When Hardy's withdrew from the region, Alex stayed.

And in 2005 he created Collector Wines.

The first wine?

2005 Marked Tree Red Shiraz.

And what happened?

It won NSW Wine of the Year.

That's quite a way to start a winery.

Twenty Years of Marked Tree Red

There's serious pedigree behind this label.

Previous Marked Tree Red releases have collected:

NSW Wine of the Year – 2005 vintage

Red Wine of Provenance Trophy – National Wine Show of Australia

Rudy Komon Perpetual Memorial Trophy – Sydney Royal

Gold Medal – Royal Sydney Wine Show

97 Points – Halliday Wine Companion – 2019 vintage

This isn't some new wine that has suddenly had one good vintage.

Marked Tree Red has been delivering for two decades.

Why Canberra Shiraz Is So Exciting

There is something incredibly distinctive about the best Canberra Shiraz.

You get the fragrance and spice associated with cool climates, but there's enough Australian sunshine to give the fruit flesh and generosity.

Great examples deliver:

Florals

Dark Cherry

Blackberry

Black Pepper

Savoury Herbs

Meaty Complexity

Whole-Bunch Spice

Mineral Structure

without becoming heavy.

And the 2024 Marked Tree Red absolutely nails that balance.

Drink It Now – Or Cellar It

One of the most impressive things about this wine is how good it already tastes.

It's immediately seductive.

But there's structure underneath.

Collector specifically says that although the wine is deliberately weighted toward early drinking, it has a sturdy spine and will age gracefully.

Halliday's published window runs to around:

2036

while Huon Hooke sees it developing through:

2038.

I'd happily drink it tonight.

I'd also happily put a case away.

Food Pairings

• Roast lamb shoulder
• Chargrilled lamb cutlets
• Wagyu steak
• Duck breast
• Beef cheek
• Porcini mushrooms
• Mushroom risotto
• Charcuterie
• Wood-fired pizza
• Hard cheeses

But frankly:

This is dangerously good on its own.

Big glass.

Give it some air.

Watch what happens.

Why We Love It

This is exactly the sort of wine Liquid Vibe exists to find.

You're getting:

100% Shiraz

Canberra District

 Hand-worked vineyard parcels around Murrumbateman

Hand-harvested fruit

Whole-bunch fermentation

Allier & Tronçais oak

Just 13% alcohol

95 Points – Halliday Wine Companion

95 Points – The Real Review

Gold Medal – Canberra & Region Wine Show

A label with a 20-year track record of trophies and huge scores

And your RRP?

$45.

That alone represents very good buying for this quality of Canberra Shiraz.

But when a wine is good enough that I'd put it in the conversation with Clonakilla O'Riada, Luke Lambert Syrah and Altera Terra Syrah, we're beyond merely talking about value.

We're talking about a wine I genuinely believe people need to taste.

Perfumed. Spicy. Silky. Savoury. Brilliant.

The 2024 Collector Wines Marked Tree Red Shiraz is everything great modern Australian Shiraz should be — intense without heaviness, structured without hardness and incredibly complex while remaining ridiculously easy to drink.

95 Halliday. 95 The Real Review. Gold Medal. $45 RRP.

This may well be one of my Shirazes of the Year.

👉 Buy six. Seriously. Drink one now, put the rest away, and then tell me where you're finding better Australian Shiraz at this price.