2024 Brash Higgins ‘Ripple’ McLaren Vale

This is a decidedly smashable and crunchy light red, all vibrant fruit with a little spicy herbal edge – but there’s some seriously clever winemaking technique at work under the hood here.

Producer
Brash Higgins
Region

McLaren Vale
RRP

$35
Vintage

2024
Variety/Varieties

Nero d'avola Shiraz (Syrah)
Alc./Vol.

13.2%

The way Brash Higgins winemaker Brad Hickey tells it, this wine came about when fellow winemaker Tom Colman pulled him aside at the end of a long day of spruiking their wares and said, “Brash, you should pick some whole-bunch nero d’avola and flood it with direct-pressed shiraz juice, and let it ferment.” So, a few years later, that’s just what he did. The very pale pink shiraz juice – with only the skin contact from pressing – completely covers the nero d’avola clusters, meaning that the nero component undergoes carbonic maceration while the shiraz ferments normally. The end result is a compellingly crunchy and vibrant red, light enough to take a chill but equally at home at a traditional serving temperature.

Tasting note

A brightly red-fruited and slightly confected nose: all kirschwasser, cranberry, wild raspberry, sour morello cherry, and the sugary pop of proper maraschino cherries – the expensive Italian kind –and Allan’s Red Frog lollies. Underneath this juicy abundance of fruit, there’s a faint sandalwood spice, a hint of freshly turned earth, a touch of woodsmoke and slight meaty note reminiscent of pastrami. The palate is high-toned, with bright and crunchy acidity, a light and fresh palate weight, and gentle tannins reminiscent of rooibos tea. Great length here as the wine gradually dissipates off the palate, alongside a lovely bit of green bramble-leaf bitterness on the finish. Chill it down a bit if you feel like it – but it doesn’t lose its focus at a traditional ‘cellar-cool’ temperature – and use it to wash down a lamb-based burger, a pissaladière, a smoked tomato tartelet, or just some slices of nice jamón serrano.

Themes of this wine

Shiraz/syrah

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.

Nero d’avola

The principal red grape of Sicily, nero d’avola is incredibly resilient to the hot and dry climate, primarily producing mid-weight berry-scented wines with racy acidity. It’s no wonder, then, that the grape is gaining very firm traction in some of Australia’s warmer viticultural zones, with now over fifty wineries making their take on nero.

McLaren Vale

While it couldn’t feel any more removed from city life, the McLaren Vale wine region is inside Adelaide’s metropolitan area. And although the township itself is only forty minutes by car from central Adelaide and vineyards brush up against ever-encroaching housing, McLaren Vale remains unaffected by the urban sprawl. With deeply etched history, the Vale has a slow-paced sense of calm and an extraordinary wealth of untrammelled beauty. It is home to some of this country’s most beautifully pristine beaches, as well as some of the world’s most forward-thinking grape-growers and winemakers. And with over eighty cellar doors, it is an essential destination for wine lovers – and anyone else, for that matter.

‘Wet’ carbonic maceration

A clever technique that allows winemakers to ferment part of a wine as whole bunches and part of it more traditionally, without the need to use separate fermentation vessels or the hassle of blending the components together. The stems add more tannin, and tannin with a slightly different feel in the mouth to grape skin or oak tannin. You’ll also get those submerged berries fermenting more or less whole, which yields a brighter fruit profile alongside a raft of spices. If you’re talking to a winemaker about this, it’s important to know that this isn’t quite the same thing as semi-carbonic maceration, which is where whole bunches are left to crush themselves under their own weight, eventually filling most of the vessel with their own fermenting juices.

Home > Wines We Love

Such a new Australian perspective on Sicily’s most important red grape. Light, vibrant, cherry scented and detailed, pitched to take a chill, or not – this is required drinking.

Producer
Gatch Wine x Little Bang Brewing
Region

Riverland
RRP

$25
Vintage

2019
Variety/Varieties

Nero d'avola
Alc./Vol.

12.5%

Such a new Australian perspective on Sicily’s most important red grape. Light, vibrant, cherry scented and detailed, pitched to take a chill, or not – this is required drinking.

Tasting note

An immensely light bodied red, all bright red fruits, raspberries and cherries, with some dark cherry notes, too, this is vibrant and lifted, putting the fruit to the fore. But it’s not simple either, with a distinct baked earth savouriness, a hint of licorice, light spice and plum skin notes. This doesn’t have to have a chill, but it certainly wears it well, with tannins beautifully shaped to provide pucker without overt grip, acidity brightening without intruding. Delicious.

Themes of this wine

Riverland

Ten years ago, five years ago – less even – South Australia’s Riverland was not a name worn proudly on the front label of a wine bottle. It was in the fine print. Obscured, somewhat irrelevant. For Australia’s largest wine region, this may seem odd, but that anonymity was – and still largely is – part of the picture. While so many of Australia’s regions are about specific attributes, specific characters, the Riverland is the everyman, a hot-climate powerhouse of volume production, a champion of affordability and reliable consistency. But there’s more to the Riverland than that, with new growers and makers working with rather than against the heat to make wine of regional character and high quality

Nero d’avola

Whole bunch fermentation

Yep, the whole thing. If you ferment with whole bunches, you’ll get a different result. The stems add more tannin, and tannin with a slightly different feel in the mouth to grape skin or oak tannin. You’ll also get some of those berries fermenting more or less whole, which yields a brighter fruit profile.

2024 Brash Higgins ‘Ripple’ McLaren Vale

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Shiraz/syrah

Nero d’avola

McLaren Vale

‘Wet’ carbonic maceration

Such a new Australian perspective on Sicily’s most important red grape. Light, vibrant, cherry scented and detailed, pitched to take a chill, or not – this is required drinking.

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Riverland

Nero d’avola

Whole bunch fermentation

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