McLaren Vale

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  1. In Praise of Shadows Sakura Rose 2024
    In Praise of Shadows Sakura Rose 2024

    67 % Grenache / 33% Sangiovese

    Sakura translates to Cherry Blossom, and this is a deliciously light to medium bodied style. Sangiovese offers some herbal and spicy notes through the lifted watermelon and strawberry palate. There is a flinty edge and perhaps pithiness akin to biting a ripe red delicious apple. Cool acidity balances nicely with the layers and texture from partial seasoned oak fermentation.

    2024
    Grenache
    Australia
    436
  2. In Praise of Shadows Mankai Red Blend 2021
    In Praise of Shadows Mankai Red Blend 2021

    Garnacha, Monastrell, Touriga, Graciano.

    So much ozone, or petrichor, here, which is so appealing. Red berries, a little liquorice and spice. Medium-bodied, at most, fresh and crisp, slightly earthy, hazelnuts, spiced poached strawberry and red cherry, emery board tannin, a distinct ‘mineral’ feel, and a cool spicy/savoury finish of brightness and excellent length. So individual. So energetic. Outstanding. Get amongst it. GARY WALSH, The Wine Front

    The name for this cracking little producer is Inspired by the Japanese literary masterpiece of the same name, In Praise of Shadows is. For Rob Mack and Brett Trewartha this is somewhat of a  philosophical wine passion project sourcing the best fruit from vineyards around McLaren Vale, many of which are certified organic and bioydnamic. Lo-fi, unfined, unfiltered, and all that jazz. Ultimately though just really flippin delicious.

    2021
    Grenache
    Australia
    436
  3. Geyer Wine Co. Barossa Valley Montepulciano 2021
    Geyer Wine Co. Barossa Valley Montepulciano 2021

    Planted over the quartz rich ridge above the gentle west facing slope where our Skins Riesling vines reside, these Montepulciano vines have their roots competing through shallow sandy soils littered with granite and quartz. It's the far eastern side of Eden Valle. Region and therefore is much lower in rainfall, colder and generally a harsher climate.

    2021 started off, with a slightly drier than usual winter, however not as bad as the previous two years. We did however suffer a  catastrophic weather event right at the apex of flowering, the vines most vulnerable period. This vineyard was somewhat protected by slightly earlier flowering and managed to avoid the majority of damage. There were a few hot days early in the season but we
    hand-picked first week of March at what I believe was a pretty epic spot.

    Hand harvested, two separate ferments, one 100% destemmed fruit and one 50% whole bunch/ 50% destemmed allow for different flavour profiles in the final product. Tannins in Montepulciano can come on real hot and heavy, and so these were pressed prior to ferment finishing  but as tannins became more pronounced. Pressed into old hogshead (300L barrels) on lees and left to age for 12 months before being bottled  with a 20ppm add of sulphur and no fining or filtration.

    2021
    Montepulciano
    Australia
    436
  4. Mutual Promise Arneis 2023
    Mutual Promise Arneis 2023
    Mutual Promise are wines made by Even Milne and comes from the Latin Compr Missum or compromise. The compromise being that he doesn't farm the fruit and nor does he have full control over the creative process making the wines with friends in  their Beechworth wineries. The Mutual Promise in essence being that they trust in others to create as they would with the aim of quality at the forefront. The wines champion some of their favourite varieties sourced from the King and Alpine Valleys in Victoria's spectacular North East. Varietal and regional purity is the heart of these wines.

    A summers afternoon, an Autumn evening, neither seem complete without a glass of refreshing dry white  wine and this wine is inspired by the dry whites of Northern Italy which are home to some of the all time great  refreshing dry whites. Whole bunch pressed, racked and fined to tank for cool fermentation with 50% aged in  white oak for complexity. Pear skin, lemon and almond blossom and that little green nutty thing that arneis does. A little bit slippery with green peach and some light herbal notes that expand out to more fleshy tree fruits on the finish. A pretty and convincing rendition of this Italian varietal but with a little more generosity of fruit and that's a good thing.
    2023
    Arneis
    Australia
    436
  5. SC Pannell Basso Garnacha 2021
    SC Pannell Basso Garnacha 2021

    A very good year for Basso. 50 year old vines.

    Bright cherry, musk, lots of iron and ferrous character, exotic spice and mint. Medium-bodied, juicy fruit, but savoury, with plenty of tannin and extract, stony feel, a lot of bounce and perfume. Finish is ferrous and crisp, and pretty long. Kind of rugged, though it’s a joyous expression of Grenache. Fun times. GARY WALSH, The Wine Front

    A contemporary expression of Vale grenache with a whiff of gum leaf, for tradition's sake. A skirt of sandy tannins, carved from the seabed with the precision of a scalpel. Kirsch, fecund strawberry, white pepper, Seville orange and tea tree. Frisky yet ample, with the levity of drinkability the endgame despite a somewhat drying finish. NED GOODWIN, Halliday Wine Companion

    We have always been a fan of the wines of the Stephen and over the years he has become more than just an acquaintance of the Prince. He has a wonderful insight into the wine world that is both pragmatic and poetic. His love of grenache is likely no surprise to those who know his wines and from his home turf in the Mclaren Vale he is master of his domaine when it comes to the varietal.

    2021
    Grenache
    Australia
    436
  6. Brash Higgins Ripple 2023
    Brash Higgins Ripple 2023
    This wine, the 2023, is made from freshly picked, whole bunch Nero d’Avola grapes which were engulfed with direct pressed Cabernet Sauvignon, as fortold. All the Cab juice covered the Nero grapes and their stems, submerging the clusters completely. The idea is that the sugar in the Nero berries, starved of oxygen, will ferment inside their little berry bodies and create a lighter, slightly confectionary flavour profile. All the fruit for the ensuing wine was handpicked off our organic Omensetter Estate Vineyard.
    2020
    Australia
    436
  7. Ministry of Clouds Tempranillo Grenache 2023
    Ministry of Clouds Tempranillo Grenache 2023
    60/40% tempranillo/grenache. From grower and estate vines with whole berry and whole bunch carbonic maceration, extended time on skins (four to five weeks), with one grenache parcel at 25 weeks; maturation in 3500 and 5000L foudre, eggs and puncheons. Tempranillo leads with cherry, anise, cola and black plum accented by spicy stem and skin notes; the grenache percolates up with wild raspberry and rosehip notes while giving the palate a more open feel, moderating its partner’s tannins through the middle, cleaning up the tail and giving this real gastronomic purpose. MARCUS ELLIS, Halliday Wine Companion
    2021
    Grenache, tempranillo
    Australia
    436
  8. Brash Higgins CINS Cinsault 2022
    Brash Higgins CINS Cinsault 2022
    From the neighbouring Lennon Vineyard, this spent two weeks on skins in an open fermenter before pressing to ‘veteran’ French oak to mature for seven months. A variety that delivers grace and vibrancy in warm conditions, this leans into those proclivities, and perhaps more so given the cooler year. Cherries – red, black and sour – peppery spicing and raspberry-leaf tea across a wine that ticks under mid-weight, lacy, fine tannins and lively acidity upping the verve. Chill lightly for best effect. MARCUS ELLIS, Halliday Wine Companion
    2022
    Cinsault
    Australia
    436
  9. Brash Higgins Grenache Mataro 2021
    Brash Higgins Grenache Mataro 2021
    A blend of 70/30% grenache/matato. From the Yangarra Vineyard on deep sandy soils; co-fermented, with three weeks total on skins; old French oak for 15 months. There’s a pulpy richness here, a buoyancy of fruit set against an inherent savouriness of site. Black cherry and wild raspberry, scrubby garigue-like herbals, red licorice, rose and ground dried orange. Slippery and silky on the palate, with tannins natural of feel and neatly set to cleanse without quelling fruit and texture. MARCUS ELLIS, Halliday Wine Companion
    2021
    Nero d'Avola
    Australia
    436
  10. Living Roots Montepulciano 2022
    Living Roots Montepulciano 2022

    This is a Limestone Coast vineyard source. Hello. Usually found in a blend for Living Roots, here seen solo.

    Vibrant expression with great train tracks of tannin, medium bodied, dense but fresh-feeling, layered with woody and sweet spice, kirsch and medicinal cherry characters in the mix. Classic kind of styling. Savoury and bright fruited at once. Those tannins. A very charming, very well done red. MIKE BENNIE

    2022
    Nero d'Avola
    Australia
    436
  11. Aphelion The Confluence Grenache 2023
    Aphelion The Confluence Grenache 2023
    Blewitt Springs fruit off 85-year-old bush vines, fermented with 30% whole bunches, some extended skin contact, raised in puncheons, demi-muids and a 2,400-litre cask. This is all charm, but with a distinctly sophisticated elegance of delivery, with all the expected pops of red fruit – raspberry, red cherry, redcurrant, some pomegranate – conveyed with vibrancy but never confection, florals, white pepper, musk and a hint of orange peel accenting. The tannins are fine, naturally wrought, food friendly and perfectly synched with the medium fruit weight. Just lovely. MARCUS ELLIS winecompanion.com
    2023
    Grenache
    Australia
    436
  12. Brash Higgins CHN Chenin Blanc 2021
    Brash Higgins CHN Chenin Blanc 2021

    Chenin Blanc from McLaren Vale, fermented wild, matured in wood.

    Colour and cloudiness, straw and nuts. This wine is wild with flavour. Citrus, saline, honey and handfuls of nuts. Lots of zip but lots of give/texture/flavour. Food-friendly and sit-and-ponder friendly. Dry and grippy on the finish, an attractive squeakiness there, and no shortage of length. It’s a ripper, really. It’s varietal but we are also in the presence of difference. CAMPBELL MATTINSON, The Wine Front

    2021
    Chenin Blanc
    Australia
    436
  13. Brash Higgins Nero D'Avola 2022
    Brash Higgins Nero D'Avola 2022

    Fermented in amphora and on skins for six months with about 20% whole bunches. A deeply brooding expression of nero, this is bristling with savoury flavour: black plum skin, olive, dried black cherry, panforte, amaro, chicory root, tobacco, roasted hazelnut, bitter coffee. Time on skins has built a formidable wall of tannin, but what a pleasure it is, the chewy, mouth-filling impact of long extraction of natural tannin, pressed judiciously and at a mindful point. It’s an imposing, almost imperious wine, with alcohol creeping up, but it all makes such perfect sense. It’s an impressively individual take on the variety. Bravo. MARCUS ELLIS, Halliday Wine Companion

    From the estate vineyard and appropriately made in amphora.

    It’s soft, supple, it’s sweet with ripe cherry fruit, maraschino strong here too, pomegranate juice. Red berry ahoy! It’s attractive and slurpy, perhaps a bit of a hole in the middle of the wine but a joyous expression with ripeness and concentration on hand. That being said, pretty elementary, straightforward, albeit easy to get stuck into and appreciate. A bundle of fun. MIKE BENNIE, The Wine Front

    2016
    Nero d'Avola
    Australia
    436
  14. Brash Higgins RSM Semillon Riesling 2022
    Brash Higgins RSM Semillon Riesling 2022
    From 1975 plantings in Blewitt Spring, riesling (70%) and semillon (30%) are picked together, kept on skins for a couple of days, then basket pressed for co-ferment in old barrels and one steel vat. This is a fuller-bodied expression of two varieties that are often represented in more trim form. Lightly oily and saline of feel, this still has zest and verve, with pungent lime oil, stone fruit, lemon pith, mint, fresh fenugreek and a bitter tonic note. It's an engagingly eccentric blend. MARCUS ELLIS, Halliday Wine Companion
    2022
    Riesling, Semillon
    Australia
    436
  15. Aphelion Trennery Grenache 2021
    Aphelion Trennery Grenache 2021
    Onkaparinga. A wonderful word. Plum and cherry, ripe and spicy, an earthy coal-like character. It’s firm and almost liqueur-like in intensity, with firm dusty tannin, and a dry plum and dried flower finish. Very good, but not quite as good as the other two single vineyard wines. Kind of sticky in its firmness. GARY WALSH, www.winefront.com

    From the Onkaparinga Hills, a parcel of dry-grown bush vines, fermented as whole clusters and aged in a single, larger-format cask. This parcel was planted in the early 1970s and it has a sappy feel (whole clusters) and bright, very pure raspberries and some leafy elements on offer, as well as blueberries. The palate has quite smooth and ripe tannins, holds a fresh edge (low pH) and delivers a similar combination of red and blue fruits as seen on the nose. A little, chewy stone pop at the finish. Nuanced and elegant. Good now, but even better in a year or two. (95) NICK STOCK, www.jamessuckling.com
    2020
    Grenache
    Australia
    436
  16. MMAD Shiraz 2021
    MMAD Shiraz 2021

    The oldest shiraz vines on the MMAD vineyard were planted in 1941.

    This is as gorgeous as the come. It’s loaded with pepper, violets, blue- and black-berries, stalks and dark chocolate. It presents as one and it presents as many. The flush of flavour, the almost-aniseed aspect, the finesse and the form; everything pulls in the one direction here. Spicy, fruity, stalky and more. It’s kind of take a bow time, for the vineyard, the sub-region and the team involved. (95) CAMPBELL MATTINSON, The Wine Front

    Kaleidoscopic, full of light and layer. Fresh acidity illuminates buoyant blackberry and black olive, with a festoon of violets, black pepper and liquorice. Silky dark chocolate melds deliciously with the concentrated fruit through a persistent finish with an ironstone tang. Elegantly, bony tannins maintain the graceful line.  Early picked, old-vine fruit, with 30% whole bunches in the ferment. SARAH AHMED, Decanter

    Deep, bright colour; a wine of tremendous presence, the whole bunch component 15-20%, 15 days on skins, 33% in concrete vessels, the balance in stainless steel and used oak. A magical combination of techniques to produce blackberry, licorice and dark chocolate flavours, the tannins almost silky. JAMES HALLIDAY, The Australian Weekend

    2021
    shiraz
    Australia
    436
  17. MMAD Shiraz 2022
    MMAD Shiraz 2022

    If you’re lucky, and most of us aren’t, there comes a time in your life when it all comes together. I suspect that’s what’s happened with this Blewitt Springs vineyard, planted in the middle of the  Second World War, and the collection of wine people behind MMAD, all of whom have weathered a lot of summers in a lot of places in the pursuit of wine excellence. This wine tastes of a lot of right decisions, and of a lot of time spent in the journey to them. It has texture, balance, flavour and all that, but as my mum would say, ‘any dumb bunny can do that’. More importantly, what this wine has is all the nods and winks. I once wrote, a long time ago, of a moment where union legend David Campese ran straight through a bunch of defenders without breaking stride, or altering course. He did something, something that couldn’t be seen, and made the impossible look effortless. So too here. It has degrees of silk, fruit enough, a spinnaker on the finish, a volume of nuance. If there was such a thing for single vineyard, vintage, Aussie shiraz, this wine would be classified as first growth. (97) CAMPBELL MATTINSON, The Wine Front

    2022
    shiraz
    Australia
    436
  18. MMAD Grenache 2021
    MMAD Grenache 2021

    The clarity of the wine matches its freshness; 90/10% whole berries/bunches; 20 days in Italian-made tulip-shaped concrete 4-tonne fermenters, basked pressed, matured 15 months in old French puncheons. The highly fragrant blend of cherry and plum drives a very long, fine and elegant palate. (97) JAMES HALLIDAY

    The grenache vines in the MMAD vineyard were planted in 1939. That’s quite a year, in world terms, to begin your life. This wine was aged in old oak; no new oak was used.

    Truly beautiful grenache. Sweet and ripe but savoury and, even, crunchy with it. Best of many worlds. Woodsmoke, herbs, raspberry, cloves and a sweet earth character. The presser mentions pomegranate and it’s a good call; it beings that seed-like crunch to the wine. Tannin is ultra fine and the finish is noteworthy. Blewitt Springs is a great place to grow red wine grapes and here, again, it’s off and away, in full voice. (95) CAMPBELL MATTINSON, The Wine Front

    2021
    Grenache
    Australia
    436
  19. MMAD Grenache 2022
    MMAD Grenache 2022

    This is ballistically good. I doubt that I’ll taste anything much better from these shores over the next 12 months. The first thing you notice is the plushness, which is always welcome, but it’s the finish that takes things to eleven. Wow, really, this wine has a show-stopping finish on it. It’s blessed with red and blue berry flavours, cedarwood, roasted spice and earth, but itemising the flavours of this wine kind of misses the point. It’s like focussing on the colour of a tidal wave. The complete and utter command of the final flourish of flavour and tannin here feels, as you swallow, like a high water mark. I’m sold, totally sold, on this wine. (97) CAMPBELL MATTINSON, The Wine Front

    2022
    Grenache
    Australia
    436
  20. SC Pannell Little Branch Grenache 2022
    SC Pannell Little Branch Grenache 2022

    This is an impactful grenache made by somebody who prizes Italian wines. The tannins are an immense force field, with kirsch, strawberries and dried Mediterranean herbs, and a note of almond husk that gives noble bitterness. The density, poise and grace are thoroughly impressive. This is a structured grenache built for the cellar. Drinkable now, but best from 2027. (97) NED GOODWIN MW

    From the new estate vineyard for Pannell, an old but recently viticulturally retooled site in Blewitt Springs. It will be fascinating to watch this bottling over the subsequent years as Stephen and co get the full benefit of enhanced farming reflected in bottle, but this is a very bright start. There's presently a touch more flex and breadth than the other single site grenache bottlings, but still with the tenson of the year. Wild raspberry, redcurrant jelly, bitter red aperitivo, tamarind and sour cherry. Tannins are fine, insistent and sandy, acidity a driving force. This is a stellar debut. (96) MARCUS ELLIS

    2022
    Grenache
    Australia
    436
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