Winemaker Notes
A brooding and muscular black fruit accented Mataro known for its complexities of mineral, ironstone, blood and gamey notes balanced by liquorice and dark black plums. A wine that is loved by the sommelier community for its deceptive weight and freshness balanced by savoury earthy notes.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
A strong vintage with more juicy drinkability than the previous one, this is polished but lucid and appealing. Fresh blackberries, currants, peppery spice and crushed violets are supported by chiseled tannins. With length and finesse this would be a top tipple for pairing with a slab of steak, but it also has great cellaring potential until 2032 at least.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I do love varietal Mataro. Earthy, tannic, muscular, a touch rustic, always plush, and there's something really mouthfilling and satisfying about it. Like a stew in winter. Here, the 2019 The Pict Mataro is so big—bigger than the 2018 that preceded it—and layered with brooding dark fruit, resinous spice and toasty, charry oak. The finish pushes a plume of heat and warmth into the throat, the alcohol revealing the warm season that birthed it. This remains the benchmark Barossa Mataro in my opinion; perhaps it was my early dealings with it, or the pleasure I found in the early 2000s museum re-releases. Either way, this is what Mataro will do under the heat of the Barossa sun.
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.
Historically and presently the most important wine-producing region of Australia, the Barossa Valley is set in the Barossa zone of South Australia, where more than half of the country’s wine is made. Because the climate is very hot and dry, vineyard managers work diligently to ensure grapes reach the perfect levels of phenolic ripeness.
The intense heat is ideal for plush, bold reds, particularly Shiraz on its own or Rhône Blends. Often Shiraz and Cabernet partner up for plump and powerful reds.
While much less prevalent, light-skinned varieties such as Riesling, Viognier or Semillon produce vibrant Barossa Valley whites.
Most of Australia’s largest wine producers are based here and Shiraz plantings date back as far as the 1850s or before. Many of them are dry farmed and bush trained, still offering less than one ton per acre of inky, intense, purple juice.