Description
Peter Schell and his French born wife Magali Gely started Spinifex back in 2001 – in a short time they 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.
Spinifex’s Syrah is Pete Schell’s take on a leaner, higher-toned expression of his adopted region. To this end, Schell sources from “…generally higher, cooler sites, where earlier harvesting gives wines with bright fruit expression and a textural freshness”. The wine, naturally fermented with a judicious use of whole clusters (on average 30%) in a combination of stainless steel, wood and concrete fermenters, also sees a shorter maturation than the Esprit and Bête Noir, et al. The 2017 was cropped from five high, exposed parcels in the Barossa and Eden Valley, where the soils are generally poor and skeletal – for the most part light, gravelly and silty sands over deeply weathered base rocks of varied origins. Vine age varies from 25 to 115 years old (averaging 50 years old), and all fruit is hand harvested.
97 points, James Halliday’s 2019 Australian Wine Companion “20-50yo vines, whole berry and whole bunch ferments in, 8 months in French oak (10% new). From Yarra Valley pinot to Barossa Valley shiraz is a massive distance, yet the ’17 vintage has kissed them both, with lower alcohol levels and producing wines of great intensity, length and balance. The Barossa Valley seldom has spice and licorice as first up aromas and flavours, but it does that in spades here, the palate a glorious rendition. It borders on full-bodied, but to leave or reduce any part of what is here would be vinocide.”
RRP $29. Our Special price $26.99 when you buy 6 bottles or more
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