Description
Winemaker Adam Barton after working for Scarpantoni (McLaren Vale), Rolf Binder (Barossa), Wynns Coonawarra Estate and iconic Bonny Doon (California) wasted no time to complete a winemaking degree at Adelaide University. Atlas Wines began on a 26-acre block of land, a vineyard planted with Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon, on the eastern slopes of the Clare Valley. The year was 2007. Adam Barton and Amy Lane made an investment in Clare and an investment in their future. Their vision for Atlas was pretty simple: to produce great wine from the highest-quality fruit from vineyards with exceptional provenance. Adam has come to understand the complexity and diversity of the Clare Valley, and how the unique characteristics of different sites produce fruit with distinctive qualities. It’s these qualities that they have sought to express through the wines they have made. As such, the Atlas house style is a carefully composed mosaic of the region. It is a true boutique producer. The red wines, sourced primarily from White Hut in the north and Leasingham in the south, are elegant yet powerful, and well structured; the whites, sourced from several sites at Watervale are finely structured, aromatic and pure.
Not suprising James Halliday rated them a 5 Red Star Winery saying “...The quality of the wines is extraordinarily good and extraordinarily consistent.”
Alongside this range is a selection of single-vineyard wines, only produced when a vineyard’s fruit is worthy of celebration on its own. Adam’s approach in these cases is to nurture these grapes through the winemaking process with attention to detail and minimal intervention to produce wines with character and that have the capacity to age.
About this wine from the winemaker: “Made with fruit hand-picked from the best and oldest dry-grown Shiraz vines at our White Hut vineyard in the Clare Valley. The vines grow in a mosaic of friable red loam and clay, with gravel and quartz, and patches of slate. These soils are tough, bony and low-yielding, producing fruit with concentrated flavours, character and exceptional power and intensity.
“The fruit was cold-soaked, hand-plunged in open fermenters, and fermented between 18ºC and 24ºC. By employing a longer, cooler extraction, we were able to better preserve fruit characters, giving a purer expression of the vineyard and fruit. Wild fermentation and extended maceration were used to build complexity and mouthfeel in the wine, before maturation in a combination of new and seasoned French oak (approximately 20% new). The final wine was barrel-selected to ensure that only the best barrels were used, and blended in accordance with our own house style.
“This wine is dense purple/black in the glass. It displays a brooding and complex perfumed nose of dense blackberry and blood plum fruit, rich dark chocolate notes and hints of crushed violets and star anise. The palate is plush and full with opulent forest fruit flavours overlaying supporting vanilla, mocha and liquorice characters. Plush but powerful, velvety tannins and fine acidity support the fruit and give the wine great power and drive, and will allow it a long life in the cellar.”
92 points, James Suckling “Impressive dark-plum, blackberry and black-cherry aromas. Gently spicy with some graphite, licorice and earth, too. The palate has a supple dark-fruit core with ripe, plush tannins carrying dark spiced-plum and chocolate flavors. Drink or hold.”
RRP $42 Our Special Price $34.99 when you buy 6 or more of this wine
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