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.
2 comments:
Yeah single variety Mataro is a tough game in Australia I'd say. The two exceptions for me anyway have been Vanguardist and Tim Smith. Former is a bit darker fruited and tannic, latter a bit fresher, spicy + red fruit and not too exxy.
Guess there is a reason for the blending haha. That said I think those two producers offer some justice to the variety. I'll confess to struggling with the Powell & Son wines as it's just a style I'm not buying much of (if any) these days.
Never had the Vanguardist. I think I am over Powell as well.
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