Winemaker Notes
A blend of usually two vineyards from the floor of the Barossa Valley, one of them around 140 years of age, the other about 70 years of age. They age their Mataro in larger format older French barrels – usually 500 litre puncheons to slow down the maturation and decrease the oak influence.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
This single vineyard 2022 Mataro, made with fruit from vines around 150 years of age, is powerful and beautifully composed - vine age no doubt playing its part. There is a superb mix of power and subtlety with rich veins of blackberry and licorice aromas laced with meat and pouch tobacco. A hearty core of fruit follows robust tannins well matched to layers of sweet, vibrant flavors, with a touch of violets in the mix. Dense tannins and juicy acidity deliver a tightly wound package that finishes with exceptional fruit definition and length. This is an excellent wine and very Barossa.
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Wine Enthusiast
A perfume of dark berry fruit, with dried mint and pencil lead behind, opens this modern Mataro (aka Mourvèdre). That herbal edge continues on the palate where the cherry and black olive flavors are flanked by savory, sappy tannins. A modern, midweight bottling for sipping beside a lamb roast or herby mushrooms.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Mataro smells exactly, precisely, plum like Mataro: mulberry, freshly turned earth, some licorice and loads of plush gravelly tannin. This is pleasurable, cushioned and full-bodied, but it never steps over into "obvious," "overt" or "over the top." There are notes of blood plum, sweet damson and raspberry coulis. This is a sensational Barossan Mataro, but like last year, the acid feels frisky. The fruit gets full marks. 14.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. Rating: 91+
Full of ripe fruit, and robust, earthy goodness, Mourvèdre is actually of Spanish provenance, where it still goes by the name Monastrell or Mataro. It is better associated however, with the Red Blends of the Rhône, namely Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Mourvèdre shines on its own in Bandol and is popular both as a single varietal wine in blends in the New World regions of Australia, California and Washington. Somm Secret—While Mourvèdre has been in California for many years, it didn’t gain momentum until the 1980s when a group of California winemakers inspired by the wines of the Rhône Valley finally began to renew a focus on it.
The Barossa Zone encompasses the Barossa Valley and Eden Valley. Some of the oldest vines in Australia can be found here.
Barossa Valley of course is the most important and famous wine growing region in all of Australia where 140+ year-old, dry-farmed Shiraz vines still produce inky, purple and dense juice for some of Australia's best wines.
In the cooler, wetter Eden Valley sub-region, the Hill of Grace vineyard is home to famous Shiraz vines from the 1800s but the region produces also some of Australia’s very best and age-worthy Rieslings.