Spinifex
Spinifex make bloody good wines and we are massive fans of their newest wine, the Spinifex Garcon Grenache. The Grenache fruit is sourced from 40-80 year old vines across the Western Barossa, from Ebenezer, Moppa, Kalimna and Greenock with fruit yield averaging a tiny 1.5 tonne to the acre. It was picked early in the ripening cycle to promote brightness and 40% whole bunch was included in the ferment. Half the wine was then transferred into French oak for 12 months, with the rest retained in tank. The stunning result is like two quite different Grenaches knitted together into a seamless whole. First there’s the ethereal, fruit-pure and mineral Grenache with mouthwatering acidity and depth of flavour. Next up, the black, angry and intense beast packed with powerful tannins. The interplay between these two, beautiful in their own right, creates excellent complexity and interest. spinifex We’re not alone in our love for Spinifex wines, here’s what wine writers have to say about Spinifex: “The wine is made in open fermenters, basket-pressed, partial wild (indigenous) fermentations, and relatively long post-ferment maceration. This is at once a very old approach, but nowadays? la mode. The wines are made at Spinifex’s winery in Vine Vale .... So far as I am concerned Spinifex out-Torbrecks Torbreck." - James Halliday Wine Companion 2009 “Pete and his partner Magali Gely operate what I think is the best new-wave of small-scale Barossa wine companies … 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 “It seems that Spinifex wines can do no wrong. Funny thing is that I took a while to be convinced of the Spinifex mastery … but I’m well and truly on board now.” - Campbell Mattinson Peter Schell and Magali Gely have been making wine in the Barossa for over 20 years. Prior to starting Spinifex, Peter was Turkey Flat’s winemaker. He’s also done vintages in Provence, Languedoc, Bordeaux and Burgundy. Magali’s family hails from the South of France and made wine there for generations. Makes sense then that most of the varieties they work with also have a home in the south of France, varieties like Shiraz, Grenache, Mataro, Cinsault, Clariette, Viognier and Muscat. They source grapes from a small group of top end growers in both the Barossa and Eden Valleys and make textural, flavorsome wines of great character. The vines are typically low yielding and aged between 50 and 120 years. Wines are made in open fermenters. The fruit is basket pressed and they allow for some wild ferments. It’s old fashioned winemaking which, given their sensitive guidance results in exceptional wines.
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