AUSTRALIAN WINE COMPANION 2010 James Halliday
A ripe, raspberry and fruitcake spice bouquet, also showing a slight briny compexity; stricter on the palate, with a generous core of sweet red fruit on the mid-palate; finishes dry and firm.
Rating: 91 Points

SELECTOR - Rebecca Willson, 1 July 2009
A slick example of this blend! Enough sweet, glossy, cedary oak, enough tarry/licoricey oomph, enough spice and raspberry brightness. Clean, tangy finish! True to the traditions of the style, but modern. Excellent understated structure. All up: classy.

AUSTRALIAN GOURMET TRAVELLER WINE - 100 Top New Releases, Huon Hooke. 1 May 2009
This is a slightly rustic red, showing some funky, earthy aromas and slightly rough tannins, although the flavour is ample, bright and lively. Intense, with good line, it would work well with red meats.
Rating: 90 Points.

AUSTRALIAN WINE COMPANION 2009 James Halliday
Fragrant and vibrant; while light - to meduim-bodied, has pure raspberry and red cherry fruit running through the length of the palate without the cosmetic characters of many Barossa Grenaches; 90 year old vines.
Rating: 94 Points

ROBERT PARKER’S WINE ADVOCATE – Issue 173, October 2007
The 2006 Butchers Block Red is composed of 55% Shiraz, 28% Grenache, and 17% Mourvèdre. A saturated purple in colour, it has an alluring bouquet of smoke, garrigue, sage, black cherry, and blueberry jam. Nicely structured, with 5-7 years of aging potential, it has layers of flavour, excellent depth, and a long, pure finish.
Rating: 92 Points

AUSTRALIAN WINE COMPANION 2008 James Halliday
Strong colour; a fragrant array of black and red fruits, spices, plum and prune; the medium-bodied, elegant palate has ripples of cherry, plum and blackberry; no baggage at all from the alcohol. Part emanates from the original vines planted in 1847.
94 Points!

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW – July 20 – August 2, 2007
The 2005 blend has returned to a conventional three-way split of Shiraz, Grenache, and Mataro and is in stunning shape- I love it when a winery is in top form! The brightness of the ’05 vintage really lifts this wine, it sings with intensity and vibrant Barossa charm. Lovely pure blackberry nose, really vibrant and clear primary fruits, red and dark berries, ripe and intense; the oak is dealt with a subtle hand. The palate has juicy jube fruit flavour, some spices here too, precocious Grenache is ruling the roost for now, supple and red fruited through the middle with the structure of Mataro working away below, Shiraz fusing them both together. Certainly played on the front foot, cellar for eight-plus years to reap rewards.
Rating: 93 Points.

AUSTRALIAN WINE COMPANION 2007 – James Halliday
Strong red-purple; a mix of juicy berry and more spicy. Savoury characters reflecting the blend; has more weight and texture than almost all others with the very old vine Mourvèdre dominant; 93% Mourvèdre / 7% Grenache.
Rating: 92 Points. Drink: 2014.

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW - NICK STOCK June 30
Peter Schulz said to me recently that Mourvèdre is the greatest grape in the Barossa. Well, he may have a fair bit of angling to get that over the line but he's making a strong case for it up at Turkey Flat. This blend leads with Mourvèdre and backs it up with Grenache, leaving Shiraz out of the equation to fend for itself elsewhere. (Their varietal shiraz is rock solid.) The 04 Butchers trades at this early stage on the charming fruit and fragrance of grenache, but it will ultimately wear the more stern and savoury colours of Mourvèdre, given enough time. Showy and sweet smelling, there's plenty of red fruits, lighter floral notes, dried roasting herbs and a gentle wave of spicy earth below. The palate follows suit, starting out luscious and dense with ripe red fruits , building to darker shades and winding itsself savoury as those fine, earthy Mourvèdre tannins kick in. There's plenty of life in the sinewy finish. Best from 2008.

THE WINE FRONT - Campbell Mattinson, June 2006
This is a lot brighter, and more gluggable, than recent releases, with sweet, cherried, blueberried fruit mingling with earthy, minerally flavours. Fun with a bit of style. Excellent oak handling, in that it's hard to find any - the way it should be for a wine like this. Perhaps a touch too sweet, but beautiful nonetheless. Drink: 2006-2011. Rating: 89 Points.

THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN - TASTE with Max Allen, June 2006
This Barossa blend of Mourvedre and Grenache goes to the edge of sweet, jammy ripeness, but is secured by a spicy savoury finish.

GOOD LIVING with Huon Hooke, June 27, 2006
Mourvedre and Grenache are the two other blokes in the three-peice pub rock band known as the Rhone Rangers - the lead singer is the Shiraz. He's absent in this rich yet savoury Barossan red, wherein Grenache's ripe bass line is neatly escorted to the end of the instrumental by Mourvedre's tannic drum demolition.

ROBERT PARKER’S WINE ADVOCATE – Issue 167, October 2006
A superb blend of 93% Mourvèdre and 7% Grenache, the dense ruby/purple coloured 2004 Butchers Block exhibits full body, sweet but high tannin, abundant glycerin, and a distinctive terroir (earth, leather, spice and minerals) . Drink it over the next decade or more.
Rating: 93 Points.

ROBERT PARKER’S WINE ADVOCATE – Issue 161, October 2005
The dense purple-tinged 2003 Butchers Block (76% Mourvèdre, 21% Grenache, and 3% Shiraz) boasts a big, sweet nose of blueberries, flowers, and earth. Structures, linear, and tightly knit, with background notions of fresh mushrooms and tree bark, this is a big, surprisingly voluptuous (for a Mourvèdre-based wine) effort, it will drink well for 5-10 years.
Rating: 90 Points.

AUSTRALIAN WINE COMPANION 2007 – James Halliday
Fresh, elegant, spicy / earthy / red fruit mix; attractively firm texture, the oak incidental. Mourvèdre / Shiraz / Grenache.
Rating: 92 Points. Drink: 2012.

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW – Nick Stock, June 24-July 7, 2005
Another great Butcher's Block hits the deck and, like the Yalumba Signature, this is as archetypal as you could ever hope for. There are more and more variations on the theme of Shiraz, Grenache and Mourvèdre to taste and yet this wine always stands out in the lineup as distinctively Turkey Flat. It leads out with Mourvèdre accounting for the greatest volume of the blend and this might be the key. Lots of really ripe red fruits, perfume and purity are the striking characters on the nose. Berries come leaping out the glass with enough air. This wine has lots to offer. The perfume carries cinnamon and sweetly spiced scents, with some nice earthy Grenache character below. The palate really cranks with a big juicy fruit presence and mouth-filling flavour. It raises the spinnaker on entry and sails at full tilt over the tongue. Choc full of red berry fruits and lots of garrigue flavoured herbs, it's undeniably Barossan but cloaked in a veil of southern Rhone character, classy and seductive. Tannins are soft and ripe, really open-knit and easygoing in this billowing youthful wine. It will settle into full stride in a year or two but drinks beautifully now if exuberance is your thing.
Rating: 91 Points

THE WINE FRONT – Campbell Mattinson, January 2005
Blend of mourvedre, shiraz and grenache. Good tar and earth flavour and structured to boot, with a healthy stack of drying tannins applied to the finish. There are some honeyed, raspberried characters and it has the feel about it that it hasn't quite yet hit its straps. Lack of fruit brightness is an issue, but flavour and style are not.
Rating : 87 Points

THE WINE ADVOCATE – Robert Parker, October 2004
Even better is the 2002 Butcher's Block, a so-called MSG (54% Mourvèdre, 24% Shiraz and 22% Grenache). Aged in 5% new oak with the rest neutral wood, this dense ruby/purple-tinged, fruit-forward red offers up aromas of flowers, blackberries, blueberries, new saddle leather, earth, and pepper. Dense, medium to full-bodied, seamless, and elegant for its size, it can be drunk over the next 4-6 years.
Rating: 92 Points

THE WINE FRONT – Campbell Mattinson, January 2005
A warm, earthy, sweet-ish wine with a flourish of condensed milk-like flavour oozing over the top – but lots of (far more appropriate) leather and earth and warm raspberry flavours rinsing through the mouth. It should be about perfect drinking next winter.
Rating: 90 Points

NATIONAL LIQUOR NEWS – June, 2004
44% Mataro 36% Shiraz 20%Grenache
Unique and incredibly well made. With Mataro as the dominant variety, this wine seduces the drinker with its perfume. Exotic, spicy flavours with a seamless palate.

LIFEWINE – Tim Atkin, 2 February 2003
With a name like Butchers Block, this is probably not a wine for vegetarians, although its organic status may win them round. A blend of Mataro, Shiraz and Grenache that's a minty, silky-tannined powerhouse.

AUSTRALIAN GOURMET TRAVELLER – Huon Hooke October/November 2002 Top 20 Tasting
A Barossa Mourvèdre/Shiraz/Grenache blend. The older wine, the 1999, had some feral, funky characters ... while Otton liked its controlled (not excessive) alcohol and crushed pepper, rhubarb, savoury redcurrant flavours. Bulleid described it as fungal, earthy but complex, with some fruit sweetness. The 2000 was preferred, with a herbal, mint and lolly aroma, and a straightforward fruit-driven taste. ... Calliard likes its redcurrant, herbal, plum, pear and chocolate flavours. According to Otton, it had good Grenache character, with red berry, earth and malt flavours, and a soft sweet mid-palate.

WINE PROS – James Halliday
Bright, light to medium red-purple; a spotlessly clean and fragrant bouquet with ripe berry and spice, then a palate with attractive fruit flavours; as ever structurally slightly weak, for reasons I do not know.
Rating: 97 out of 100

STUART GREGORS WINE GUIDE 2002 – 'Don't drink wine without me'
I love Turkey Flat. I think the name is part of it to be honest but I also love the fact that it may be the oldest Shiraz vineyard in Australia. Turkey Flat claims to have a couple of rows of shiraz vines planted in 1847 that still manage to produce a few bunches of grapes each year. This wine is a Rhone blend with mataro taking the lead - and it is a beauty. It's a bit feral in the nicest possible way, with a whiff of cow poop and some earthy, gamey flavours that make you wonder if they haven't used some of the dirt around those old vines in the blend. Don't let that put you off, the wine is actually delicious.

GOOD FOOD GUIDE 2002 – Ralph Kyte-Powell
Blended from old-vine Barossa Mataro, Shiraz, and Grenache, this has earthy traditional nose that hints at spices, red and black berries. It’s medium-bodied and ripe-tasting with some astringency underneath.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH – Jeff Collerson. June 13, 2001
This is a blend of almost equal parts Mourvèdre, Shiraz, Grenache grapes. Some of the grapes came from the original vines planted 150 years ago on this historic Barossa Valley property. This makes a wonderful food partner – the nose laced with spicy, sweet fruit and oak and the palate rich and supple with a velvety texture.

THE AUSTRALIAN MAGAZINE - Max Allen. June 30-July, 2001
...last but no means least, from small Barossa producer Turkey Flat comes the 1999 Butchers Block ($30), a blend of mataro, shiraz and grenache. This is a brilliant wine with a great, generous and unusual personality: as well as the full, concentrated black berry and chocolate flavours you expect from old vine Barossa reds, there's an intriguing savoury aroma of almost tobaccoey wet black wood - a character I associate with mataro. It's sensational with spicy Italian sausages.

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD – July 17-23, 2001
Here's a descent slightly feral Rhone-style blend from the Barossa, offering generous smooth, complex, meaty flavours in a full bodied, firmly tannic package. Hints of herb and pepper, too. Oak takes a back seat and it’s the earthy, spicy fruit that dominates. Drinks well now and until about 2007.

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD - Sunday Life with Ralph Kyte-Powell 23 September 2001
"Blended from old-vine Barossa Mataro, Shiraz, and Grenache, this is an earthy traditional nose that hints at spices, red and black berries. It's medium bodied and ripe- tasting with some astringency underneath".

WINE SPECTATOR - 1st January 2001
Lots of ripe flavour on a soft, gentle frame, mingling cherry, raspberry and white pepper notes that linger on the finish. Drink now through 2004. 300 cases made.
Rating: 87 Points.

JAMES HALLIDAY – October 5, 2000
Light to medium red-purple; a light but fragrant mix of earth, cinnamon spice and strawberry aromas is followed by a palate with that slightly curious, light-bodied style which nonetheless comes from very old Grenache vines. I readily accept that others will regard my points as miserable.
Rating: 87 Points. Best Drinking: 2001 to 2005.

EWINEEXCHANGE, www.ewinexchange.com.au, Tasted 7/000
Mid red in colour with crimson edges. An initial sulphide stink that soon dissipates, on offer are aromas of fresh forest fruits and stewed plums with a gamey, barnyard edge. The fruit flavours focus on cherries and raspberries, there is support from well handled oak and delicious nuances of earth and cloves. Finishes with moderately good length with rustic, grainy tannins. Rating: 87 Points.

GOOD WEEKEND - Wine by Huon Hooke, July 24, 1999
Now Turkey Flat, one of the Barossa's outstanding small producers, has issued a blend and called it Butchers Block. It could be a play on words, as many wines are named after a section of a vineyard, know as a block: Old Block, Back Block, Mum's Block, Block 6 - But there really is a butcher's block at Turkey Flat, a slab of red gum trunk that was used as a chopping table by Peter Schulz's forebears. They ran a butchery at the vineyard from the late 1800's. The block is still there, slightly white-anted, and the 120-year-old bluestone butcher's shop now houses cellar door sales. Butchers Block 1997 is 67 per cent mataro, 17 per cent shiraz and 16 per cent grenache and has an intense, peppery spiciness. It's a big, voluptuous 14.5 per cent alcohol drop: fleshy, sweet and opulent. It drinks well with rustic foods, game and offal - especially steak and kidney pie.

EWINEEXCHANGE, www.ewinexchange.com.au, Tasted 6/99
Mid red in colour. The ripe forest fruit aromas are subdued for a Barossa Rhone blend, underlying earth and gamey notes rival for centre stage. On the palate the flavours focus on fresh raspberries and black cherry, white pepper spice and earthy notes add to the complexity. The finish has very good length of persistence; the firm yet velvety tannins and tight structure indicate fine cellaring potential.
Rating: 90 Points.