Home > Wines We Love > 2021 Spinifex Rosé

A riot of wild red berries accented with earthy complexity, this is at once bright, juicy and forward while having gently earthy mineral notes, textural across the palate but decidedly dry.

Producer
Spinifex
Region

Barossa Valley
RRP

$28
Vintage

2021
Variety/Varieties

Cinsault Grenache Mourvèdre Shiraz (Syrah)
Alc./Vol.

12.5%

Rosé in this country had to shed considerable baggage to get where it is today, transforming from sickly sweet hot-pink affairs to prettily pale wines that stress bright fruit flavours and savoury dryness coupled with texture. Spinifex played a vital role in that renaissance, and it continues to lead the field. A riot of wild red berries accented with earthy complexity, this is at once bright, juicy and forward while having gently earthy mineral notes, textural across the palate but decidedly dry.

Tasting note

A peachy pink, this is vibrantly fruitful, with a wash of red-berried fruit, wild raspberries, white strawberries and redcurrants, with watermelon rind and orange oil, some dusty mineral notes adding a gentle earthy complexing quality. The palate follows that theme, with super-bright fruits that never drift into confection, a burr of grape tannin pairing up with the acid to give maximum refreshment value though the dry, mineral finish.

Themes of this wine

Rosé

From its spiritual home in Provence, in southern France, rosé can be both democratically affordable and dizzyingly expensive, but it rarely slips into the sordid or gets hung up on being too serious. It maintains a broad welcoming smile. It says, drink me. It says, relax, have fun. Those bottles of rosy-tinged sunshine have been exported to all corners of the globe in their legion, and they have found their mark, fashioning the expectations of drinkers and shaping the decisions of winemakers. Today, Australian rosé has grown up, with wines that can both be deliciously frivolous, built for sunshine and good times, as well as having a more serious side, emphasising detail and nuance, and made to pair with food.

Grenache

The great grape of the Southern Rhône, grenache, has also found many homes around the world, from Spain, to Italy, to California, while Australia is home to the world’s oldest productive grenache vines, planted in 1948. Today, a renaissance is seeing the grape championed, with makers in McLaren Vale arguably turning out the most compelling examples.

Mourvèdre

Mourvèdre – or Mataro if you’re from South Australia – is a grape that is typically blended, usually with grenache and shiraz. Bottled solo, it often makes dark-fruited wines with gruffly earthy/herbal notes and plenty of tannin, but it makes some of the world’s best rosés, too.

Syrah/shiraz

Shiraz dominates the Australian wine industry, accounting for nearly a third of this country’s vines. The grape’s traditional home is in France’s Northern Rhône, with wines that combine elegance and power, while Australia is perhaps best known for the muscular styles from warmer areas. Today, drinkers of Australian shiraz are spoilt for choice with expressions ranging from the elegant and spicy to the monumental.

Cinsault

Cinsault has been grown in Australia since pioneering days, but it has typically been swallowed by blends. However, its ability to shrug off hot and dry conditions and still make elegant wines with plenty of acidity is seeing its star rise in warmer zones like the Barossa Valley. Fragrant and quite pretty, cinsault can have very lifted aromas of red berry fruits, like raspberry, strawberry and cherry, while some blue floral notes, like violet also typically feature. It rarely achieves much more than midweight, with gentle tannins and decent acidity.

Barossa

The Barossa is arguably Australia’s most revered wine region. It dwarfs many other fine wine regions for scale, while firmly maintaining a quality profile, with its distinctive style and character recognised worldwide. It is dripping in history, has far and away the largest resource of old and ancient vines in the country, and fifth- and sixth-generation growers and makers proliferate. It is fair to call it the cornerstone of Australian wine. It is the home of powerful red wines, established names making established styles, but there are also makers finding new meaning in the territory.

Home > Wines We Love > 2020 Spinifex ‘Garçon’ Grenache

Sourced from three sites, with vines from 55 to 90 years old, Pete Schell crafts the fruit into a democratically priced everyday wine that over delivers in a major way. Crushed red berries and cherries, spices and florals leading to a palate shot through with rocky and earthy minerality, the balance impeccable.

Producer
Spinifex
Region

Barossa Valley
RRP

$28
Vintage

2020
Variety/Varieties

Grenache
Alc./Vol.

14%

Grenache is just about the most exciting category in Australian wine right now, from the bright and forward to the serious and brooding. This wine captures a bit of both. Sourced from three sites, with vines from 55 to 90 years old, Pete Schell crafts the fruit into a democratically priced everyday wine that over delivers in a major way. The emphasis is on approachability, but it’s underwritten by old vine minerality, with crushed red berries and cherries, spices and florals leading to a palate shot through with rocky and earthy minerality, the balance impeccable.

Tasting note

There’s real vibrancy here, with wild raspberries, ripe redcurrants, macerated cherries, red floral notes and a dusting of warm spices. It’s fresh and forward, but coming off old vines there’s plenty of depth and presence, too, with a brooding dark minerality underpinning. Those characters persist on the palate, with rosewater and musk notes very subtly chiming in, grapey, pithy tannins tucking the fruit into line, leaving a neat impression of the bright and the savoury effortlessly intertwined, drinkability at the fore.

Themes of this wine

Grenache

The great grape of the Southern Rhône, grenache, has also found many homes around the world, from Spain, to Italy, to California, while Australia is home to the world’s oldest productive grenache vines, planted in 1948. Today, a renaissance is seeing the grape championed, with makers in McLaren Vale arguably turning out the most compelling examples.

Barossa

The Barossa is arguably Australia’s most revered wine region. It dwarfs many other fine wine regions for scale, while firmly maintaining a quality profile, with its distinctive style and character recognised worldwide. It is dripping in history, has far and away the largest resource of old and ancient vines in the country, and fifth- and sixth-generation growers and makers proliferate. It is fair to call it the cornerstone of Australian wine. It is the home of powerful red wines, established names making established styles, but there are also makers finding new meaning in the territory.

Old vines

There’s no region in the wine world that has a greater appreciation for old vines that the Barossa does. So much so that they have created a regional charter to define the ages. Old Vines are 35–69 years, Survivor Vines 70–99 years, Centenarian Vines 100–124 years, and Ancestor Vines 125+ years. It’s a helpful scale, as 150-year-old vine is going to produce very different fruit to one 35 years old. As vines get very old, their roots will have gone very deep, often resulting in a greater sense of minerality, depending on site, while their ability to withstand vintage vagaries is much improved, drawing water from deep in the soil. They also become very low yielding, naturally regulating their production of grapes with increased concentration in the berries.

Home > Wines We Love > 2020 Spinifex ‘Esprit’

Built from mataro, grenache and cinsault, this illustrates what makes blends so compelling – each component pooling into the gaps left by the others, leaving a seamless whole, laced with ripe red fruits, spice and floral notes, the palate supple, with fine grip and natural freshness.

Producer
Spinifex
Region

Barossa Valley
RRP

$35
Vintage

2020
Variety/Varieties

Cinsault Grenache Mourvèdre
Alc./Vol.

14.5%

Pete Schell is revered by his peers for many things, but his skill at blending across varieties and across a mosaic of micro-parcels of sites, blocks and ferments is the stuff of legend. Built from mataro, grenache and cinsault, this illustrates what makes blends so compelling – each component pooling into the gaps left by the others, leaving a seamless whole, laced with ripe red fruits, spice and floral notes, the palate supple, with fine grip and natural freshness.

Tasting note

On the nose, lifted ripe red berries, led by raspberry and dark red cherries, with mulberry notes chiming in, a dusting of peppery spice and blue florals accenting. There’s ample fruit and depth here, but in typical Spinifex fashion, it’s so well composed and balanced, ripe but not broad, savoury but not drying. Flavours unlock even more with air, revealing an even more sleek and succulent beast, fine but assertive tannins and vibrant natural acidity closing out a detailed and effortlessly balanced wine.

Themes of this wine

Mourvèdre

Mourvèdre – or Mataro if you’re from South Australia – is a grape that is typically blended, usually with grenache and shiraz. Bottled solo, it often makes dark-fruited wines with gruffly earthy/herbal notes and plenty of tannin, but it makes some of the world’s best rosés, too.

Grenache

The great grape of the Southern Rhône, grenache, has also found many homes around the world, from Spain, to Italy, to California, while Australia is home to the world’s oldest productive grenache vines, planted in 1948. Today, a renaissance is seeing the grape championed, with makers in McLaren Vale arguably turning out the most compelling examples.

Cinsault

Cinsault has been grown in Australia since pioneering days, but it has typically been swallowed by blends. However, its ability to shrug off hot and dry conditions and still make elegant wines with plenty of acidity is seeing its star rise in warmer zones like the Barossa Valley. Fragrant and quite pretty, cinsault can have very lifted aromas of red berry fruits, like raspberry, strawberry and cherry, while some blue floral notes, like violet also typically feature. It rarely achieves much more than midweight, with gentle tannins and decent acidity.

Blending

Most wines are a blend of some sort. It may be a blend of the same variety from the same vineyard, but with different blocks, clones, aspects, picking dates, ferments and then barrels (if barrel aged), each batch is a little different. Sometimes everything goes back in, and sometimes a winemaker will select the parcels to make a particular style of finished wine or just the best wine they can. This principle is used across varieties, too, with many traditional regions in the Old World blending across varieties to make a complete whole, with some grapes adding fragrance or fruit depth, some tannin, some acid… the art of the blender is to get the balance right. Increasingly, winemakers are breaking the established rules of these classic blends, making surprisingly new expressions from varieties that have rarely shared a bottle prior.

Barossa

The Barossa is arguably Australia’s most revered wine region. It dwarfs many other fine wine regions for scale, while firmly maintaining a quality profile, with its distinctive style and character recognised worldwide. It is dripping in history, has far and away the largest resource of old and ancient vines in the country, and fifth- and sixth-generation growers and makers proliferate. It is fair to call it the cornerstone of Australian wine. It is the home of powerful red wines, established names making established styles, but there are also makers finding new meaning in the territory.

2021 Spinifex Rosé Barossa

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Rosé

Grenache

Mourvèdre

Syrah/shiraz

Cinsault

Barossa

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Grenache

Barossa

Old vines

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Mourvèdre

Grenache

Cinsault

Blending

Barossa

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