Spinifex Indigene 2012

Description

‘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.

As always, Indigene is based on the Barossa’s wonderful resource of old-vine Mataro (aka Mourvèdre) sourced from tiny pockets of vines on the region’s eastern fringes. The final cut was drawn from five parcels of Shiraz and two of Mataro. The three Barossa sites, Moppa’s quartz shot clay, Bethany and Eastern foothills, bring opulent ballast counterbalanced by the fragrance and freshness of the Eden Valleys component (drawn from the High Eden at 550 metres and Moculta, see below for more details on this site). The Mataro comes from two sites including old vines rooted in the deep sands of Vine Vale and from Ebenezer. Across these sites, vines range from 20 to 90 years old, with an impressively high average of 70 years. Each variety is treated separately; the Mataro is fermented with foot-crushed bunches and raised in large format oak to preserve its subtle aromatics. The Shiraz sees 20 per whole bunch, some mature barrique and a single 600 litre demi muid. The final blend is bottled without fining or filtration.

Pete rates this as the “most elegant Indigene we have knocked out.”  Right off the bat it’s amazingly aromatic with lots of savoury, fresh meat, and iodine notes on the nose. The palate is super pure with pristine raspberry, anise, crushed poppy seeds, pepper, and cedar notes. Again those hints of fresh, clean meat in the background. Lovely rocky tannins. Another unbelievably classy and elegant wine. It’s ripe, but very fresh and without any alcohol sweetness, reflecting the balance of the 2012 vintage. Supple and pulpy texture, with notes of red fruits and wild herbs, fine tannins and a perfumed finish. More feminine than the 2010 – that is, more perfumed, cooler and graceful. Just a wonderful wine.

97 Pts Halliday, The Wine Companion.. (This was  second highest rated wine in the GSM category)
“The combination of blackberry, plum, multi-spice, dark chocolate and earth of the impossibly complex palate capture the message of the equally complex bouquet without missing a beat. The flavours roll on relentlessly, like waves crashing on a beach in the night. Shiraz/Mataro.”

95 points Mike Bennie, The Wine Front ..”“For me 2012, the tannin maturity was really good, good flavour depth, you could do what you want, some went for lusciousness, but in 2012 something strange happened, and the Indigene was much more delicate than usual. I got a bit twitchy after 2011 and picked earlier than expected, without sacrificing anything I feel”, says winemaker Pete Schell, “the tough years teach you about the good years anyway”. This is a blend of mataro and shiraz. Larger format wood and concrete vats have been the (r)evolution, “put delicate fruit, earlier picked fruit in barrique and it will rip the guts out of it”, offers Schell, “the larger format helps hold the tannin, works better with finer fruit characters”. This wine wasn’t made in 2011.
Spritely perfume, rose petal, exotic spice, meaty characters. Firm texture, racy in red and black fruit, composed – certainly shows the crisp acidity and freshness of the winemaking, but also a depth of vinosity that says something more is happening here. Impressive in form and length, this really is a super wine, in vogue of the ‘lighter side of Barossa’ but with detail, precision and finesse in tow. What a wine.”
RRP $80  Very Limited