The Rebirth Of David Powell, part 2

I now had a chance to taste the range of wines of David's new business, Powell & Son. I  will not review the individual wines here, as the volumes are very small (400 cases, 150 cases for the single vineyard wines). Rather I will comment on my general impressions. I posted a review of his Shiraz a few blogposts below.

All the red wines are from 2014, which means they are extremely young. There is a GSM (similar to the Steading, with a bit less Mataro, which will increase), a Barossa Valley Shiraz, a Barossa and Eden Valley Shiraz (from the same vineyards as the Struie), and two single vineyard wines from Eden Valley, the Loechel and the Steinert, (named after the families owning the vineyards). Pricing is high. The Steinert is $700 per bottle. 85% of the production was pre-sold in Hong Kong.This actually underwrote the new business.

From the description of the wines you can already see that a tiger does not change his spots. These are full-bodied wines, not quite as big as Torbreck. There is a goal on elegance, but these wines have not quite achieved this yet with perhaps the exception of the single vineyard wines. The Loechel is powerful, but well balanced. Not much acidity in this wine. The Steinert, tasted from barrel, is more closed at this stage, with blueberry fruit and great length and silkiness. It comes from a vineyard in Flaxman's Valley, at 480m altitude. Overall, the wines are overpriced.

These wines have not totally convinced me, but there is no doubt some beauties will appear with time.