Head Wines

Alex Head is an exciting new talent in the Barossa. A bit like Spinifex, he likes to fashion vibrant and refreshing wines, with fruit intensity a minor consideration. This works well in years with a lot of sunshine, but in rainy and cool years, the wines can be a bit thin. As a result, this showing of seven current Rhone varieties was a bit disappointing.

2012 Head Red GSM: intense raspberry fruit, fairly forward but good length, opens up on  finish (90 points).

2012 Head Red Shiraz: plum and red kirsch flavours, grapes picked very early, strong acidity (88 points).

2011 Head Contrarian: slowly fermented, quite savoury, but not enough mouthfeel (89 points).

2011 Head Old Vines Grenache: a thin and quite earthy wine (86 points).

2012 Head Old Vines Grenache: light style, fresh and elegant with some backbone (92 points).

2011 Head Blonde: From a vineyard in Stonewell, this has good fruit and broadens out nicely. However, does the wine have the structure to age? I doubt it (88 points).

2011 Head Brunette: From the Moppa vineyard, this wine is quite fresh and forward, plum on the palate, and fine tannins on the finish (90 points).

Personally, I am looking forward to the 2012 Blonde and Brunette, which will come out in September.