Vintages Produced: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, (no 2009 Noon Eclipse produced), 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997
Produced from 92% Grenache, 4% Shiraz and 4% Graciano, all estate grown and hand picked.
What a pretty and refined Eclipse we have in 2024. It demonstrates the legitimacy of the claim that Grenache is like warm-climate Pinot Noir. It has a wonderful roundness of texture in the mouth and fills your palate with soft fruit flavour. It also reflects the conditions of the vintage clearly; possessing a lighter colour than usual due to the larger crop and the cooler summer. But the purity of fruit is beautiful and the silky mouthfeel is divine. A very attractive wine for drinking now through until 2030+.
PS Good to know… Eclipse production from 2025 was half that of the 2024 release due to the drought so we will have to tighten the limit next year.
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Produced from 90% Grenache, 6% Shiraz and 4% Graciano, all estate grown and hand picked.
From a cool vintage, we picked in late March and early April this year as we used to in the good old days and 2 weeks later than the new normal. Produced from ripe, perfect looking grapes which we could see were going to make a terrific wine...and so they have. It makes me smile when I taste it! Ready to drink from release but will mature gracefully in a cool cellar until at least 2033.
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Produced from 81% Grenache, 14% Shiraz and 5% Graciano, all estate grown and hand picked.
From a small Grenache crop this year, the deeper colour was immediately apparent when crushing the grapes and is always a good sign. The aroma is very attractive, with ripe red berries in abundance, along with spice and a woodsy undergrowth note.
The depth of flavour is amazing. It fills every corner of your palate and doesn't let go, developing richness and building right through to a long, firm finish. It's a very satisfying wine to drink now or over the next 10 years plus.
Produced from 90% Grenache, 6% Shiraz and 4% Graciano all grown on our McLaren Vale vineyard.
The 2021 Eclipse has a lovely perfume of fresh red currants and wild strawberries. It almost smells of summer, all exotic berries and spice. The texture is smooth and full bodied. The balance is very good particularly considering the generosity of flavour here, with a long firm clean (almost refreshing) finish. Very attractive.
Produced from 92% Grenache and 8% Shiraz all estate grown at McLaren Vale.
The 2020 Noon Eclipse has turned out very well. It’s beautifully perfumed. In the mouth, it’s sweet fruited on entry and then a properly firm structure takes over leaving a lovely long tail of flavour.
It’s quite Pinot-like in style but with extra body. It will be delicious to drink any time from release and I expect it to mature slowly.
Produced from 88% Grenache, 7% Shiraz and 5% Graciano grown on our estate vineyards in McLaren Vale.
The 2019 Eclipse is concentrated in flavour due to the small crop resulting from the warm, dry growing season. Production was half of 2018. The freshness and firm tannin structure are particularly impressive this year and reminiscent of the 2018, with perhaps even higher fruit concentration.
Lovely to drink now and should be a particularly long lived Eclipse.
Produced from 91% Grenache, 3% Shiraz and 6% Graciano grown on our estate vineyards in McLaren Vale.
This is undoubtedly one of the best Grenache vintages I have seen. The wine looked notably dark in colour straight out of the fermentation vats.
The Eclipse has an especially lovely perfume this year, combined with impressive structure. It is more full bodied than usual and packed with flavour but the balance is excellent thanks to a high level of ripe tannins providing a firm finish.
It is great drinking now and I expect it to mature very nicely over the next 10 years or more.
Produced from 90% Grenache, 6% Shiraz and 4% Graciano grown on our estate vineyards in McLaren Vale.
The 2017 growing season seems to have suited our old vines well. They benefitted from the abundant moisture of the spring and then we were blessed by the late arrival of warm, dry weather in March to ripen the smallish crop to perfection.
Healthy grapes led to healthy ferments so the work in the cellar was easy. The resulting wine is very full bodied reflecting the late season sunshine but as usual it is not heavy, with natural poise and balance.
It's complex in flavour, with red fruits, spices and earthy/woody notes and it should provide delicious drinking at anytime over the next 10 years or more.
Produced from 87% Grenache, 5% Shiraz and 8% Graciano, all grown on our estate vineyards in McLaren Vale. One of my favourite Eclipse vintages.
Last noted 15 July 2025: opened to share over dinner with friends visiting from Vanuatu.
Still looking young, although there are now mature aromas and flavours of cigar box and tobacco too. The palate is full bodied, with exquisite balance provided by lovely firm tannins on the long finish. Very nice. We finished the bottle the next night around a bonfire in the open and it was delicious. I reckon it had become even more silky.
Optimum drinking: At it's peak right now but will hold until at least 2030 if well cellared.
Produced from 90% Grenache, 3% Shiraz and 7% Graciano, all grown at McLaren Vale on the Winery Block, Almond Block and BJ’s Block. This was a warm, early vintage.
Last noted: 18 July 2025 opened for the visit of a mailing list customer and friends here for the footy (Gold Coast lost to the Crows)
Mature colour. Lovely aroma - complex - dark plums, sweet spices, toast, dried herbs. Inviting. Wow - full bodied, soft, packed with ripe fruit, lovely balance provided by silky tannin giving a long, satisfying finish. Very nice.
Optimum drinking time: mature and drinking beautifully now but will hold through until 2030+
From a small crop and a vintage of more modest alcohol levels, resulting in a dense, slow maturing wine. Denser and firmer in style than the Reserve Shiraz and Cabernet from the same vintage. The 2014 Eclipse is produced from 85% Grenache, 8% Shiraz and 7% Graciano; all estate grown in McLaren Vale. Only medium deep red in colour, with a touch of brick in the hue. Smells very inviting, with wild strawberries and kirsch liqueur, along with hints of cardamom and white pepper. A full bodied wine, with a lovely soft mid-palate texture before quite firm tannins on the long finish. Has excellent balance and lots of potential. Should mature nicely and be a long lived Eclipse.
From a warm, early vintage, this looks to be a very good Eclipse. Produced from 86% Grenache, 6% Shiraz and 8% Graciano, all estate grown.
Last noted: 27 September 2025 Medium-deep in colour. Lovely nose, with ripe berry fruit along with a touch of thyme and spice. Very full-bodied, softly textured palate giving a rounded mouthfeel. Gentle ripe, sweet fruit balanced by equally gentle firm tannins. Nice. The balance is a feature, with nothing out of place or standing out. Long and impressive finish. Looking really good right now. You'd never know it was 16.0% - 15.0% maybe? - a reminder that you can't judge a wine by the label (or a book by its cover).
Optimum drinking time: now through until 2030+
Last noted: 7 July 2025
This is the first release to be sealed with a screw cap. Produced from 88% Grenache, 9% Shiraz and 3% Graciano, all estate grown. Medium deep red in colour, with a slightly brick hue. The nose is quite shy on pouring but opens with breathing to reveal red berries, spice, tar and charcoal. Promises more with time in the glass or bottle. The palate is firm and full bodied, with nice balance and very good length.
Optimum drinking time: Delicious now but this is a more tightly structured Eclipse which I expect to continue to evolve with further cellaring of 5 years+.
This release is produced from 81% Grenache, with 13% Shiraz and 6% Graciano and is the first entirely from estate grown grapes.
Last noted 27 May 2025: Nice long, quality cork. Highly perfumed aroma, displaying sweet berry fruits along with a little tobacco and cedar from bottle age. Striking purity. In the mouth it displays sweet fruit at first (strawberries) before revealing silky tannins and a rounded texture. It possesses near perfect balance giving the impression of finesse and weightlessness despite the depth and intensity of flavour. A great result from this cool, wet, late vintage.
Optimum drinking time: At a perfect stage of development/maturity right now. You could probably cellar this up to 10 years more but it's hard to imagine it tasting any better than today.
**Eclipse vintages from 2010 to 2002 are now fully mature but most will still be drinking well, depending partly on a good cork and good cellaring.
Varietal Composition: Grenache (McV) 45%, Shiraz (LC) 35%, Cabernet Sauvignon (LC) 5% and Graciano (McV) 15%.
Notably deep in colour because of the relatively low percentage of Grenache in the wine this year due to the small Grenache crop. Attractive nose, with fennel, spice, blackberry and dried fig notes. Full bodied, with deep-set flavour and a long, well-balanced finish. This is looking good and gives the sense that it will drink well over a long time to come.
Optimum drinking time: now through to 2020+
Unfortunately we did not produce a 2009 Noon Eclipse due to the very hot weather conditions experienced prior to harvest which affected our old bush vines more than most, as they are unirrigated. For further information on the 2009 harvest, please click on the “Vintages” button in Journal.
Varietal Composition: Grenache (McV) 38%, Shiraz (LC) 50%, Cabernet Sauvignon (LC) 10% and Graciano (McV) 2%. An unusually high percentage of Langhorne Creek Shiraz and Cabernet this year due to the challenges of a harvest heatwave.
We bottled a small trial lot of this wine with screw caps and we can now compare the cork sealed wine with a screw capped one. Tasted June 2019. The cork finished bottle appeared to be a good example, with good level and little wine travel evident on the cork. It tasted good, showing some maturing characters alongside robust, ripe fruit. It is a generously proportioned wine, with nice old-vine depth and appears to show the increased Shiraz component this year in its more robust frame. Best drinking from now until around 2020+ (cork). The screw capped wine was more shy aromatically, with a hint of reduction on first opening which lifted with airing in the glass (the cork finished wine smelled slightly caramelised by comparison). On the palate the difference was just as evident. The purity and freshness of the fruit on the screw cap wine really stood out. It looks beautifully preserved and on a slower maturation curve than the cork wine. Best now until 2025+ (screw cap trial).
Varietal Composition: Grenache (McV) 61% and Shiraz (LC) 39%.
Last noted: 18 June 2025 - this bottle from our cellar had a good cork and fill level and the wine poured with a nice deep colour for its age. It displayed a lovely mature aroma of ripe sweet plums and strawberries, along with spice (cinnamon/white pepper) and dried tobacco. Smells inviting.
The palate lived up to this promise, delivering a generous mouthful of flavour, with a lovely soft texture and the smoothness that comes with age. Very good balance, with a fresh acidity keeping it young. Excellent length of flavour too.
Optimum drinking time: Looking good at 18 years. Drink now (no benefit to waiting any longer) but if well cellared should hold for another 5 years+.
A lovely big wine from a small crop in 2007.
Varietal Composition: Grenache (McV) 63% and Shiraz (LC) 37%.
Last noted: 13 July 2014 Medium-deep in colour, still holding a youthful appearance. Attractive and complex nose, showing kirsch liqueur, molasses and earth, along with strawberry conserve, spice and a hint of graphite/charcoal. Lovely balance and freshness of flavour. Excellent length and harmony. Poised and quite elegant.
Optimum drinking time: now, but will hold until 2018+
Varietal Composition: Grenache (McV) 60%, Shiraz (LC) 34% and Cabernet Sauvignon (LC) 6%.
Last tasted: 18 October 2025, with beef lasagne from Andy Clappis
Very good cork in this bottle - no travel. The colour is a medium-deep red, with some brick hue appropriate for this age.
Nice nose - cedar and berry fruits.
Very full bodied - smooth and seamless - with melted tannins. Fully mature but still alive and kicking. In its prime or arguably a little past it but still a very good, and impressive, drink. Best decanted right before serving to leave the sediment behind.
Optimum drinking time: now - on a slow decline.
Varietal Composition: Grenache (McV) 66% and Shiraz (LC) 34%.
Last tasted: 15 June 2015 Medium-deep red in colour with a touch of brick in the hue-youthful looking for its age. Attractive nose of sweet red and black berries, with some undergrowth and black pepper/spice notes. Nice smooth palate texture, showing good depth of flavour and balance. Not as big as the 2003; a refined Eclipse from a more gentle vintage.
Optimum drinking time: best now to 2020
Varietal Composition: Grenache (McV) 68% and Shiraz (LC) 32%
Last tasted: 31 July 2015 Medium-deep red in colour, holding a good hue for its age. Sweet, ripe, attractive and slightly old-fashioned nose, with a hint of molasses. Big mouthful of flavour, dense and ripe with a firm finish. A big wine from a drought year, well balanced and travelling along nicely.
Optimum drinking time: best now to 2020
Varietal Composition: Grenache (McV) 70% and Shiraz (LC) 30%.
Last noted: 9 August 2025
From an outstanding vintage, this bottle had an excellent cork, so my hopes were high. The wine didn't disappoint; in fact, I was surprised just how good this was looking. Still holding a dark red colour with only a little brick hue to give away its age. The aroma is full of youthful berries and sweet spices. There is remarkable depth and generosity to the palate, which remains very well balanced. The tannins are rounded by the years but still present and combined with fresh acidity provide a perfect counterpoint to the ripeness here. Good length too.
Optimum drinking time: Excellent overall and now beautifully mature but looking like it will continue to age gracefully for another decade or more if well cellared. Probably my favourite pre-2011 Eclipse vintage.
Varietal Composition: Grenache (McV) 66% and Shiraz (LC) 34%.
Last tasted: 19 July 2015 Light to medium deep red in colour. Attractive, mature nose with ripe berries, cedar, molasses and white pepper. A large-framed, soft textured wine in a generous style from a warm season.
Optimum drinking time: best now until about 2020
Varietal Composition: Grenache (McV) 65% and Shiraz (LC) 35%.
Last tasted: 19 July 2015 From a difficult vintage due to summer rain. The colour shows good depth and hue for its age. The nose is a little dull however, with some berry fruits along with a meaty/leather character. Full bodied but there is a sharpness to the acidity and the finish which detracts.
Optimum drinking time: now past its best
Varietal Composition: Grenache (McV) 65% and Shiraz (LC) 35%.
Last tasted: 20 September 2015 Impressive colour, deep and with only a little brick hue evident. VG for this age. Attractive, mature nose of cedar/spice with balsamic notes and a little fresh earth. Sweet blackberries behind. Full bodied but with a tight structure (typical of this vintage). Firm, dry finish. Now fully mature but on a slow evolutionary track.
Optimum drinking time: now to 2020+ if well cellared and with a good cork
Varietal Composition: Grenache (McV) 64% and Shiraz (LC) 36%.
Last noted: 4 June 2025
Tasting note: Medium deep in colour, with a pronounced brick hue. Looks fine for its age.
Lovely ripe fruit cake aroma, with sweet dried-fruits (currants and figs) and nutmeg/clove spice, along with cigar box/tobacco notes. Attractive and still holding onto some youthful fruit.
Very full bodied, the flavours echoing the aroma, with fresh acidity providing balance to the ripe fruits. The tannins are very soft now and have melted into the background. Has good length.
A ripe and robust mouthful which is fully mature now but still cruising along at 27 years old and (this bottle) appears only just at the beginning of a long, slow decline.
Optimum drinking time: drink up as there is only sentimental benefit to waiting any longer.
We drank this with a cinnamon-accented vegetarian Moussaka drizzled with a little honey at the table, which worked very well. Alternatively, a simple grilled beef steak (preferably a porterhouse or another cut with good marbling) would be excellent.
Varietal Composition: Grenache (McV) 62% and Shiraz (LC) 38%.
Last tasted: 8 July 2014 Still deep red in colour, with a brick hue. A relatively youthful appearance. The nose shows fresh forest berries, along with some tar/molasses (typical of a warm vintage) and spice. The palate has a soft, full bodied structure, with evident high alcohol and a taut acidity adding balance. Tastes mature but not over-mature. Looking good and will hold until well past 20 years if you have a well cellared bottle and a good cork.
Optimum drinking time: now.
Varietal composition: Grenache (McV) 65% and Shiraz (LC) 35%
Last tasted: 19 July 2015 Lots of sediment in the bottle, so decanting is recommended but only just prior to serving as this wine is now quite fragile. The colour is still deep, with a brick hue. Attractive, mature nose of cedar, plum and spice. Full bodied, with a soft, generous, well balanced palate. The flavours are quite mature.
Optimum drinking time: now fully mature and on a slow decline into old age.
The vines which produce this wine surround our house and the furthest are 500m from it, so they are very familiar in all their seasonal guises. They are like old friends. I have pruned and tended them since I was a child and so the appearance of the vines themselves, the leaves and the bunches as they develop, is very familiar. I feel like I share a life experience with them and so they are close to my heart.
The wine we produce from them reflects this vineyard and our region. Noon Eclipse is produced predominately from Grenache (80-90%+), along with small amounts of Shiraz and Graciano.
Ideal drinking time is generally at 5-10 years of age, when the wine is still youthful but has gained complexity and softness from time in bottle. Most of our customers tell me they find the wines to be still quite youthful at this age but I prefer to be conservative with recommended cellaring times, allowing for people’s different cellaring conditions. And it’s far better to drink them a little too young than too old as there’s no going back!
You can also drink your Eclipse much earlier than this of course. There’s plenty of enjoyment to be had from drinking at 1-5 years when the wine is robust and full of vigour. At this age I recommend giving the wine some air and a little time to breathe to soften the tannins before consuming. Decanting an hour or more ahead will do this. The younger the wine the tighter the tannins and the more time required. When we drink the current release, we usually find it tastes even better the next day.
Varietal Composition
Grenache (80-90%), Shiraz (5-10%) and Graciano (5-10%); all estate grown.
Note that prior to 2011 (bottles sealed with a cork) the Eclipse was typically produced from 65% estate grown Grenache and 35% Langhorne Creek Shiraz (20 Rows block).
Food Matching Suggestions
Noon Eclipse is best served with richly flavoured foods. It is not a wine for sipping over a light summer salad lunch. It is more suited to an Autumn or Winter’s evening with food based around chorizo sausage, anchovies, olives etc.; think along the lines of hearty Mediterranean dishes.
The stage of maturity of the wine also has an influence on the best food pairing. As a young wine (say from 1 to 4 years) choose quite strongly flavoured more complex dishes such as kangaroo or duck in richly sauced casseroles. As an older wine choose robust dishes but served simply, with minimal adornment such as char grilled steak with chips or roast chicken.
For tasting notes on individual vintages of this wine click on the ‘tasting notes’ tab.
The Vineyard
We are lucky here in South Australia to have old vines growing on their own roots (not grafted onto rootstocks necessitated by the presence of phylloxera). This could be more important than is generally recognised, allowing our vines to more readily reflect their terroir and produce wines with a ‘sense of place’. This circumstance is quite rare in a world sense and gives us a unique advantage.
Our vines grow in natural harmony with their environment. They are unirrigated and not trellised, so they appear quite ‘free range’ compared to most modern vineyards. Yields are low, ensuring the grapes ripen easily with full flavour development.
The grapes for Noon Eclipse are picked from three vineyards surrounding and adjacent to our house and winery in McLaren Vale. From the Winery Block where we grow Grenache bush vines, which were planted in 1934; from the Almond Block where we grow Shiraz and Graciano (bush vines) which were planted between 1998 and 2001, and from BJ’s Block which is another Grenache bush vine vineyard, planted in 1943.
We believe the key to Noon Eclipse lies in the special qualities that each of these blocks and varieties brings to the wine and feel lucky to be able to work with such wonderful vineyards.
Winemaking
Noon Eclipse is usually quite high in alcohol because it is produced from Grenache grapes from low yielding vines. We do not set out with the aim of making a wine of high (or low) alcohol. Our desire rather is to harvest fully ripe fruit which best expresses the flavour of the grapes and the site.
Noon Eclipse is matured in seasoned 300 litre French and American oak barrels and large (Foudre and demi-muid sized) oak casks for 18 months.
The grapes are picked by hand and fermentation takes place in small open vats with manual pigeage, to help extract colour and tannins. Pressing is also done by hand, using manual basket presses which are gentle and do not extract too much bitterness or astringency.
Very little is added or taken away by modern winemaking technology.
Noon Eclipse is grown, made and bottled on the estate.
AVERAGE PRODUCTION
Average production is 700 – 800 dozen 750ml bottles.
Production can be halved in drought years.
Noon Winery supports the responsible service of alcohol. It is against the law to sell or supply alcohol to, or obtain alcohol on behalf of, a person under the age of 18 years.
SA Liquor Licensing Act 1997, Section 113. Liquor Must Not Be Supplied To Persons Under 18.