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.
It’s not easy to recall a year that was as exciting across the board as 2015, so you’d rightly be expecting something special from Pete Schell’s flagship Shiraz. By design, La Maline has always been Spinifex’s purest and most finely structured expression of Barossa Shiraz. The wine is cropped from meticulously tended terroirs; 75 year old dry grown vines from four high-altitude sites (three are in the Eden Valley and one is in the Barossa Valley). The 2015 is a powerful wine, no question about that. This makes sense as 2015 was a powerful year. Yet this is also super pure and sleek with vibrant blackcurrant and blackberry fruit, a fresh, sappy edge from the whole bunches and a vibrant perfumed close. A stunning Barossan. Drawn from four vineyards growing in the gravel shot clays and degraded silty sand soils in the higher parts of the north west Barossa, Moculta, Eden Valley and the Eastern foothills. Vine ages range from between 20 and 70 years of age. Vibrant blue hued ruby. This is the most masculine and classically regional La Maline yet released due to dry growing season in 2013. Initially reserved with dark fruit and oak elements yet to settle to their final form. With time in the glass cardamom, pepper, dark rose, mulberry, ripe pomegranate and blonde tobacco lift over prune d’agent, crème cassis and dark leathery loamy base notes. Bold and direct on attack, fleshy. Strong plum and blueberry fruits flow to a fresh finish driven by plum skin like acids and fine nutty tannin. The innate opulence of the Shiraz grape, the concentration of the vintage and high altitude vineyard provenance all find a gorgeous counter balance. This is all class…
97 points, James Halliday’s 2018 Australian Wine Companion “This is nothing short of electrifying. It’s as if a ball of energy has been created with a core of tiptop dark fruit laced with pepper, menthol, star anise and patchouli. There are high tones to the floral notes, creaminess on the full-bodied palate, velvety tannins and integrated cedary oak. It has power, design and structure yet purity, too, and extraordinary length. It takes complexity to a new level.”
RRP $80 LAST BOTTLES OF THIS VINTAGE!
(New Vintage 2018 also available as Special 6 Pack Buy .. click here)
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.