Spinifex Bete Noir 2021
$36.50
SPECIAL BUY 6 or more. Dark fruited, full bodied, multi layered Barossa shiraz. 95 points, Huon Hooke.
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.
A Bête Noir is the bane of one’s existence and refers to the multitude of small parcels that go into this blend. Pete Schell’s ‘21 is a blend of old-vine Barossa Shiraz and Eden Valley Shiraz sourced from vines across nine small family vineyards of Barossa’s sub-regions—with the eastern foothills, Moppa, Eden Valley and Light Pass all playing contrasting roles. Vineyard age ranges between 25 and 125 years, with “65 years being a fair average across the blend”, according to Schell. So, 100% old vine Shiraz from a great vintage in the hands of a master blender. Wonder how this is going to turn out…
The proportion of whole clusters varied from “everything to nothing” depending on the vineyard, with roughly 35% in the final cuvée. Vinified with indigenous yeast fermentation, élevage on lees in new (35%) and seasoned French oak barrels—ranging in capacity from 225-litre to 4500-litre—for 20 months before bottling without filtration.
“It’s a really good year”, offers Pete Schell of 2021, in typically economical fashion. Factoring in his penchant for understatement, “a really good year” for Schell means something a little more for the rest of us. Inspired by the classically styled Barossa reds from the 70s and 80s (bottles plundered from friend’s parents’ cellars), it’s a refined, medium-bodied, detailed and aromatic wine with the ‘last-man-standing’ confidence of a truly exciting vintage.
The old-world feel is strong with this one. Packing a supple core of black and red fruit and veins of aromatic spice and savouriness, its magnificent length and refined web of tannin has the 2021 flirting with best-ever territory.
95 points, Huon Hooke, The Real Review “Deep, bold purple-red colour; aromas of sweet ripe black fruits, blackberry and mulberry, vanilla/chocolate too, the palate full bodied and fruit-sweet at the core, then some astringency comes in thanks to acidity and tannin—but it’s all in balance. Plenty happening here. A promising shiraz that will reward patient cellaring.”
94 points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front “It’s flush with fruit but there’s a meatiness to this and its churned with tannin too, grainy tannin. Charred meats, blackberries and blueberries, a floral element and fist loads of roasted spice. It’s bold but neat, tannic but not at the expense of the overall flow. Excellent gear, this.”
RRP $47 *Our Special Price $36.50 when you buy 6 or more of this wine*
Additional information
Producer | Spinifex |
---|---|
Region or Country | Australia, Barossa Valley |
Variety | Shiraz |
Vintage | 2021 |
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