We release the our top Shiraz - The Hanisch - from the magnificent 2005 vintage plus two huge Shiraz from Magpie Estate - the Very Rare 'Malcolm' Shiraz 2005 and 'The Election' Shiraz 2005. Download Now
When at the Hospice du Rhone, held in Paso Robles in 2007, I became friendly with Bob, an Arizona local with a penchant for fine Rhone Valley reds.
"If ever you are visiting Australia, make sure you look me up", I said.
Bob came by just this last weekend, and brought along his partner, the lovely Suzanne, whom it turned out, I had gone to school with in Adelaide some thirty years ago!
Suzanne and I attended both Linden Park Primary School and Concordia College, before she left for America in the early eighties.
With Bob and Suzanne were Tania and Peter. It turns out that Tania also attended Concordia, but she was in a different year to me.
We traipsed down to the back of the barrel hall where all the 2009 vintage reds are sitting in their barrels, quietly waiting, and slowly changing, until I am ready to bring them to bottle.
I am already very impressed with the 2009 vintage, but it was nice to hear from others how wonderful the reds are looking, even at this early stage. Bob has a very good palate, so it was refreshing to hear his opinion of the wines, and to get a different perspective.
All of the wines look good, clean and pure of fruit, which is my aim as a winemaker - minimal interference in the cellar and let the vineyard speak for itself.
The Adelaide Review published a piece on the 2009 Barossa vintage in the June 2009 edition. 'Mataro will be a star; albeit in its usual underground, subversive fringe-dwelling style. "One word - purity," says Rolf Binder, one of the region's most talented Mataro maestros, "there's plenty of bramble and cinnamon and nutmeg spices."....Binder was ... smiling when he summed up 2009 thus; "After the heat, it just ran in cool and never, ever got hot again". 2009's are the stars that will emerge in time.'
Their favourite - the Hanisch of course. Our icon wine of a single-vineyard Barossa Shiraz. The 2006 is a cracker and a small amount is still available from our winery Tasting Room, and only the best wine stores.
I won't be putting the 2007 into a bottle as the vintage didn't hold up. The wine is picked and barreled, but it will be 'declassified' into one of the other brands.
The 2008 was a very good year, although a late heatwave affected some of the vineyards. Luckily, the Hanisch had been picked, so we expect to see a very good wine from this vintage.
But, we suspect that the 2009 is the next best one, as tasting the barrels with old friends can really enhance any wine.
Rolf aged about seven playing with the grape marc. Photo from the mid
1960's.
Red Wines
