Spinifex Garcon Grenache 2016

Description

Peter Schell and his French born wife Magali Gely started Spinifex back in 2001 – in a short time have made a name for themselves as producers of fine elegant and sophisticated Barossa red blends. Peter hails from NZ originally but he and Magali are firm Barossaphiles with a great love of the ancient Barossa soils (100 million years old whereas in Bordeaux the soils date back to the last iceage 40,000-100,000 years) and the old vines. Inspired by time spent working many vintages in the south of France their love is the local varieties there – Mataro, Grenache, Shiraz and Cinsault. What sets them apart is their attention to detail and total hands on winemaking.

They are not interested in making blockbuster wines – they seek finesse and complexity (aromatics, line and length) in their wines…Sourcing small parcels of fruit from small family growers and their use of multiple small fermentation tanks allows them to ferment small parcels separately rather than pooling them – a very French technique – which means more ingredients to play with and absolute precision for blending.

‘Pete and his partner Magali Gely operate what I think is the best new-wave of small-scale Barossa wine companies to emerge at the beginning of the 21st century… These weren’t big, blockbuster, showy wines designed to impress. They were wines that managed to take the best of the Barossa’s sometimes forgotten varietal traditions and fuse them onto a very European flavour sensibility.’ Max Allen, The future makers.
‘It seems that Spinifex wines can do no wrong.’ Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front.

Named Garçon—this new cuvée is drawn from a series of dry grown, 40-80 years old, low-yielding Grenache parcels in the Ebenezer, Moppa, Kalimna and Greenock areas. The winemaking is very much in the traditional Spinifex mould: slow, natural fermentations with gentle pump overs and foot stomping, and maturation in seasoned oak puncheons. Crafted with 40% whole bunches the focus is on fresh, juicy drinkability and it delivers on this in spades.

95 points, James Halliday’s 2019 Australian Wine Companion “80yo vines, hand-picked and sorted, whole berry/whole bunch wild fermentation, 70% matured 8 months in used French oak, 30% in tank. Light colour, typical of most grenache; red fruits and elastic tannins play hopscotch on the supple palate and long finish. Hard to visualise a table that wouldn’t welcome this wine.”