Mataro (Mourvèdre) Time

 The days around Christmas have been quite cool in Sydney, so I decided to open some Mataro. This variety is found most often blended with Shiraz and Grenache as a Southern Rhône or Australian wine. Mataro tends to produce tannic wines, with gamy notes. It is also difficult to grow. However, there are some straight variety wines.

The first wine I opened was the 2016 Powell & Son Kleinig Vineyard Mataro. Seven years seemed like a good age. However, the wine showed very ripe and burnt. Mulberry and earthy flavours were dull. Tannins had mellowed. The wine clearly lost its energy and had aged too quickly.

Score: 82/--

The second wine was an entry level 2021 Alkina Mataro. I expected this to be much fresher, due to the winemaker and its young age. It had a similar dark colour to the Powell. The typicity was quite good, with mulberry and savoury flavours. The wine had more energy than the Powell, but it was still very full-bodied and quite thick in the mouth - not very exciting.

Score: 88/0

I think I prefer to enjoy Mataro as part of a blend.

Soul Growers Mourvédre

 When three winemakers with experience from Penfolds, Barossa Valley Estate, Hentley Farm, and Murray Street get together to make wine, when the plot is some of the oldest Mataro grapes in the world, and when the vintage is 2012, my expectation is high.

Therefore I am slightly shocked when I taste the 2012 Soul Growers Mourvédre. Blackberry, mulberry fruit and black pepper could have delivered an attractive profile, but this full-bodied wine is overripe. Why would you, in a vintage which almost made itself, overextend the hang time of the fruit? Firm tannins bring this syrupy wine to an alcoholic finish.

Score: 86/--  

  

Vino Paradiso

The Australian Technology Park seems to carve out a niche for "alternative" wine festivals. After the hugely successful Rootstock festival for organic and biodynamic wines, comes Vino Paradiso, a new festival of food and wine, targeting a younger audience with many unknown wineries presenting and DJ music to boot. The other feature seems to be high temperatures. I visited on Saturday, and after the scorcher at the Rootstock festival, hey presto, it was 39 degrees celsius again. The air-conditioning could not cope, and the tasting of red wines in particular was difficult. They should have been cooled, but were not.

I stayed with some of the better known wineries. Eden Road presented its single region Shirazes. The 2013 Eden Road Hilltops Shiraz was quite perfumed and pretty - a feminine wine with excellent texture (92 points). The 2012 Gundagai Shiraz is darker in colour and more peppery, but the finish is a bit uninspiring (90 points). The popular 2012 Long Road Shiraz is a blend between the two regions (mainly Gundagai) and more of a quaffer, but with attractive aromas (88 points).

The 2010 Kaesler Bogan Shiraz and the Pizzini Barbera and the Nebbiolo did not impress me, but suffered from being way too warm.

The major surprise, however, was the 2012 Soul Growers 106 Vines Mourvedre. This is  the best single variety Mourvedre I have tasted from  Australia (or anywhere). There are only 106 vines left from this 130 year old vineyard north of Nuriootpa in the Barossa. The flavours are very complex and varietal. Blackberry and mulberry flavours are mixed with spice and mild red meat. The texture is framed by smooth and silky tannins.

Score: 96/+++

The Wines of Dean Hewitson

Where do Hewitson wines fit in in the crowded space of Australian wine? They are probably best known for their 160 year old Mourvedre vineyard near Rowland Flat, from which the Old Garden Mourvedre is made, the oldest Mourvedre in Australia. Otherwise, there is a focus on Rhone varieties and the Barossa and McLaren Vale regions. Here is a review of their current red wines.

The 2012 Hewitson Miss Harry is an attractively priced GSM, which tastes very fresh, with red fruit and interesting herb flavours. Great value for money (92 points). The 2012 Hewitson Ned and Henry's Shiraz is darker, with savoury characters and a rustic finish (90 points). The 2012 Hewitson Baby Bush Mourvedre is made from cuttings from the old vines, but they are quite young at this point, and the wine is not well balanced (88 points). In contrast, the 2009 Hewitson Old Garden Mourvedre has the balance of old vines, which often seems to come naturally. The wine is savoury, with attractive spice and good length. It does not match an old vine Shiraz in complexity and expression, though (93 points).

Then there are three other single vineyard wines. The 2012 Hewitson Basham's Beach Tempranillo comes from the Fleurieu  Peninsula. It is the first vintage from there since 2006. The wine is quite fruit forward and does not match the quality of the other wines (86 points). The 2012 Hewitson Mad Hatter Shiraz from Blewitt Springs, McLaren Vale is a lighter style of Shiraz, with red fruit flavours dominant. There is spice in this wine and you could take it for a cooler climate Shiraz (91 points). I found the 2012 Hewitson Mother Vine Shiraz more satisfying. This wine originates from a single old Shiraz vine, which was found in the Mourvedre vineyard. New buds were then grafted onto other rootstocks. This wine tastes of black fruit, it has deeper flavours, yet is fresh (92 points).

Overall, this was quite a consistent line-up. The wines showed good varietal characteristics and are well made. They did not hit a particular high note, however.