Spinifex Old Vine Mataro 2012

Description

Peter Schell and his French born wife Magali Gely started Spinifex back in 2001 – in a short time they 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.

Not to be confused with the Old Vine Moculta Single Vineyard releases from the same year, this wine was sourced from a selection of 90 year old Barossa Mataro rooted in the Lights Pass sub-region between Angaston and Nuriootpa. Fermented naturally, the wine spent a total of three weeks on skins before 16 months in old French oak, and then a stretch in stainless steel to freshen the wine up.

It has all the exceptional power you would hope of an old vine Barossa Mataro, and then some. There is a big mouth filling attack of spicy blackcurrant, inky, poppy seed noted fruit and a powdery, savoury structure, which, only after four years is beginning to resolve itself. The finish scents the breath with plenty of spice and earthy notes-the hallmark of great old vine Mataro for Pete Schell.  Drink now till 2032.

96 points, James Halliday, 2023 Australian Wine Companion “The identity of the vineyard is not disclosed, but it’s very good on the incontrovertible evidence of this remarkable mataro, a variety that is notoriously difficult to manage on its own in the winery. The colour is excellent, as is the depth of the complex fruits that range across red and purple into a savoury/earthy eventide of flavours and dusty tannins.” March 2022.

RRP $69   *Our Special Price $57.99 when you buy 6 or more of this wine.