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.
Returning after a three-year hiatus, the 2021 La Maline is a batch selection drawn from Pete and Magali’s own Rostein vineyard and another site that lies directly adjacent. Both vineyards are in the High Eden and are located at 490 metres elevation. They are 70 and 20 years of age respectively, are both dry-grown and have skeletal, sandy and granitic soils.
Vinification is kept simple: all fruit is hand-harvested and fermented with indigenous yeasts in open oak and steel fermenters for between 12 and 21 days before pressing. The 2021 saw between 30 and 45% whole bunches in the ferments and 2% pressed Viognier marc was included in the must. Maturation took place in French oak barriques and demi-muids (approximately 40% new) on light lees for 20 months prior to assemblage and bottling.
La Maline, by design, is Spinifex’s purest and most finely structured expression of Barossa Shiraz. Vine age, altitude, ideal soils, dedicated viticulture and Pete’s skilled hand have resulted in a highly perfumed and savoury wine. It’s high-octane but remains lithe and elegant, with svelte and sinewy texture, stylish power and a multi-faceted, lengthy and potent close. Very much in best-ever territory here, this is excellent value to boot.
97 points, Dave Brookes for Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion 2024 “Peter Schell’s La Maline shiraz/viognier blend has always struck me as a Barossan wine with distinctly northern Rhône sensibilities. The fruit purity and depth scream of its antipodean roots, but the sense of mineral energy, tight granitic tannins and earthy amaro and spice-speckled aspects sends my hippocampus into overdrive remembering great Côte-Rôtie I’ve been lucky enough to drink. Whole bunches have been deployed in a masterly fashion here, and the wine is graceful but has a real sense of latent power, a wonderfully pure depth of plum and dark fruits and a long, detailed finish. Great vintage, too.”
95 points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front “Talk about nailing it. This slots straight into the realms of the glorious. It’s meaty, spicy, jammed with well-ripened fruit and just so well structured; so persistent. Plums and exotic spices, floral lifts, some undergrowth, some game. It feels filigreed; it feels certain. The complexity here, in a silken/seamless context, is right up there.”
95 points, Huon Hooke, The Real Review “Good depth and hue of purple-ish colour, the bouquet fresh and minty, indeed a basket of fragrant herbs is there to sniff. The wine is elegant and medium-full bodied, with softly drying tannins and approachability. A wine of effortless power and style.”
RRP $88 Our Price $76.99
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