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.
When quizzed on the name of this wine, Winemaker Pete Schell said that most wines seem to fall into a “masculine” or a “feminine” style. When he first made this wine back in 2001, he felt it couldn’t be categorised – it was a bit of both. Like the song “Lola” says “she walked like a woman and talked like a man”.
Pete Schell is crafting a slew of exciting, avant-garde whites from the Barossa and Eden Valleys these days, yet his ‘cherry cola’ blend is the
original, and some would say the most multi-layered white. At three-quarters of the blend, Semillon again takes centre stage in this year’s Lola, joined by Clairette, Ugni Blanc and Vermentino. The Semillon—a grape that has been grown in the Barossa Valley since the 1850s—is sourced from three old-vine vineyards (65, 75 and 95 years old) located in Ebenezer, the foothills near Bethany and the valley floor close to the Para River. The Clairette is cropped from an elevated site in Rowland Flat on the eastern side of the Valley. This late-ripening grape, with excellent acid retention, provides additional freshness. Ugni Blanc and Vermentino contribute texture, even more freshness and a lick of salinity.
All parcels were hand-harvested, and the bunches were chilled before crushing and maceration on skins for six hours before pressing. All fermentations were wild in a combination of old French oak barriques, puncheons and stainless steel. Components were then matured on lees for eight months before blending and bottling.
Schell’s extensive attention in the vineyards and a light touch in the shed have given us another exceptional release of this unconventional
white. It’s a deliciously fresh and textured white blend, flush with stone fruits, citrus, salinity, spice, and some lovely hay and talc notes lending complexity. It’s fleshy with a nice phenolic tension, bracing acidity and a long, savoury finish—one of the Barossa’s most original white wines, and one of its best.
Newly released, review for 2020 – 91 points, Dave Brookes, 2023 Halliday Wine Companion “There was no accompanying information describing the breakdown of the grape varieties in this year’s Lola, but sometimes such minutiae just isn’t necessary. All you really need to know is that it’s a delicious, slinky textured white blend, flush with citrus, custard apple, soft spice, almond blossom, cream and stony tones. The interplay between the light phenolic swirl and acidity is bang on, finishing dry, savoury and long, with a light wash of mountain herbs.”
RRP $30 *Our Special Price $24.50 when you buy 6 or more of this wine*
