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Swinney Mourvedre 2023

$43.99

SPECIAL BUY 6 or more. Spicy, savoury and textural richness. 95 points “Remarkable .. beautifully expressive..”

Categories: , , , Product ID: 16011

Description

Siblings Matt and Janelle Swinney have created something very special in the Frankland River region of the Great Southern in WA. The vineyards are part of remote and isolated 2,500 (approx. 6,000 acres) hectare grape growing and grazing property which has been the home of the Swinney family for four generations.

George John Alexander Swinney was a pioneer of the Frankland River Region and settled at ‘Franklands’ in 1922. The ‘Franklands’ property sit on ironstone gravel hill tops above the Frankland River and produce wines that have a distinctly ferrous character – a character strongly associated with the highest quality Frankland River fruit.

Bush vine viticulture is their passion and, with the right site selection and varieties, produces some of the most site-specific fruit you will see. Growing vines this way is labour intensive and requires a lot of dedication and patience – everything must be done by hand, but the lower yield and greater effort is worth the effort!  Low-yielding and growing naturally without trellising, bush vines are a rarity in Western Australia and exemplify the Swinney’s long term commitment to producing wines that are a true expression of their unique sites and variety and in as natural and unforced manner as possible.

Winemaker, Rob Mann (grandson of the legendary Jack Mann—the godfather of Western Australian wine)– joined the Swinney team in 2018, whose philosophy is simple—to reflect and preserve the personality of each individual vineyard site. To achieve this, we harvest by hand—often with multiple passes over the same vine—fruit and berry sort and co-ferment where possible.

There is no question that this vineyard and the style being crafted under one of Australia’s finest winemakers, Rob Mann, have redefined syrah and grenache. These are now the established benchmarks and should be on the buy-now list for anyone with an interest in contemporary Australian wine.” Ray Jordan, The West Australian, 2021

When Matt and Janelle Swinney first decided to plant Grenache and Mourvèdre, many questioned their wisdom, saying the grapes wouldn’t ripen. As it turned out, under Swinney’s uncompromising management, this cool, ironstone pocket of Frankland River now looks like the promised land for these Mediterranean varieties.

Swinney was named 2020 Vineyard of the Year in the inaugural Young Gun of Wine Australian Vineyard of the Year Awards. “The scale of the vineyard, coupled with their pinpoint focus and pursuit of innovation, and the quality of the resulting wines, is truly extraordinary and inspiring”, the judges said.

The positive results of Swinney’s meticulous viticulture are, perhaps, felt most strongly in the Mourvèdre. This is the third straight Mourvèdre bottling, and wine is basking in the spotlight. Swinney’s Mourvèdre is drawn from dry-grown bush vines on Wilsons Pool Vineyard, planted in the early 2000s on rich gravelly-loam soils. The fruit was picked by hand when flavour and tannin were perfectly ripe, then sorted berry by berry and transferred via gravity to a single stainless-steel fermenter. Bunches were bumped up a touch this year—a well-judged 30% highlighting the variety’s “distinctive ferrous qualities, fine structure and wild spice”. It spent 11 days on skins before being pressed to fine-grained large-format French oak, where it matured for 11 months.

Mann says Swinney’s Mourvèdre is the wine that most clearly expresses the site’s signature ferrous, rusty nail character. Violet, lavender, and blue/blackberries provide the lift, with salumi, pepper, and gravel tugging below. The palate is plush and bright, with a line of sweet, pure fruit and powdery tannins puffing out across the back and extending the graphite and iron mineral notes wide and long.

About this wine from the winemaker: “Vibrant magenta Perfumed complex and intriguing with blood pudding, fresh plums and hints of white pepper Wonderfully medium bodies with bags of complexity. Flavours include pomegranate molasses, wild berries Chinese five spice framed by a lattice of fine tannins fastened together by rusty nails.”

95 points, Ray JordanYet another remarkable Rhone variety expressed perfectly from Frankland River. The aim appears to have been to present this as true a reflection of the vineyard as possible. It’s from bush vines and then a combination of whole bunches to build structure, wild fermentation to build texture and then finishing off for 11 months on lees in older French oak. It all contributes to a beautifully expressive wine capturing the distinctive ferrous regionality and the soft supple fruit of the variety with a little dried herb and sage bush lift.” 

RRP $51  Our Special Price $43.99 when you buy 6 or more of this wine

Additional information

Producer

Swinney

Region or Country

Australia, Frankland River, Western Australia

Variety

Grenache and Blends, Mourvedre, Shiraz, syrah

Vintage

2023

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