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 noire is the bane of one’s existence, an apt reference to the multitude of small parcels that go into this blend. Pete Schell’s ‘23 is a blend of old-vine Shiraz from the Barossa and Eden valleys, specifically, six different parcels from the sub-regions of Moppa, High Eden, Light Pass and the Eastern Foothills. Soils vary across the sites, from thin, skeletal sandy loams in the loftier plots to the classic sand-over-red-clay in the Moppa and Light Pass regions. Vineyard age ranges between 25 and 110 years, with “45 years being a fair average across the blend”, Schell reckons. So, 100% old-vine Shiraz from a great vintage in the hands of a master blender. Wonder how this is going to turn out…
Inspired by the classically styled Barossa reds from the 1970s and ’80s (bottles plundered from friends’ parents’ cellars), it’s a refined, medium-bodied, detailed and aromatic wine. The old-world feel is strong with this one. An incredible bargain, as usual.
93 points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front “This is soft, plump, well-flavoured and well sustained. It’s right in the groove. It tastes of plums and toast, peppercorns and caramel, with saltbush and leather characters coming through as whispers. Everything is in good order here. Tannin is ultra-fine too.”
RRP $48 Our Special Price $38.99 when you buy 6 or more of this wine.
