2015 Schwarz Shiraz
They make about 1000 dozen of this and, as they say in the classics, it goes all right. If you like Barossa shiraz (and reds in general) Schwarz should definitely be on your shopping list.
It’s smooth as silk. It’s substantial and yet not at all overdone; it sits at the upper end of medium-weight. It offers dark, roasted, blackberry-earth-coffee flavours but it remains fresh. There’s a coal-like, clovey character to the nose and then a juicy run of berried flavour on the palate. It suggested at a graphite-like savouriness but generally holds true to berried fruit, aided by a slip of licorice. It’s a modern expression of the Barossa without getting too high falutin’ about it. It’s very nicely done.
Rated : 92 Points – Campbell Mattinson
Tasted : Jan17
Alcohol : 14.1%
Price : $30
Closure : Screwcap
Drink : 2017 – 2024
(Campbell Mattinson – The Winefront, 23 January 2017)
2015 Schwarz GSM
Barossa blend of grenache, shiraz and mataro. 1400 dozen. Grown on various vineyards around the Barossa.
You have to admire the way this wine presents. It’s earthen and spicy, with redcurrant running through, and yet it’s pure silk in terms of mouthfeel. Ultra modern in many ways and yet the fruit and earth does all the talking; it’s just as apt to call it ultra traditional. Tannin curls freely through the back half of the wine. Graphite and clove notes makes cameo appearances. It’s all so very well done.
Rated : 92 Points
Tasted : Jan17
Alcohol : 13.6%
Price : $28
Closure : Screwcap
Drink : 2017 – 2022
(Campbell Mattinson – The Winefront, 20 January 2017)
2016 Meta Mataro
The 2015 rendition of this gorgeous, slurpy little Barossan beauty slid effortlessly into the top 10 of this year’s Hot 100 Wines. This, the newly released 2016 model, also peaks the drinkability meter and will provide much enjoyment over the summer months.
Mourvedre, Monastrell or, as we call it in this neck of the woods, Mataro, is a sexy little beast. All too often in the past it was blended away, part of the famous GSM phenomena you see, but considering the incredible stock of old Mataro vines we have here in South Australia, that seems a bit silly and it’s nice to see so many proud, straight Mataros now gracing shelves in wine stores and appearing on wine lists.
Hand–picked with wild yeast and some whole bunches in the ferment, it’s a wild–eyed little thing that possesses an uncanny ability to convince you to keep refilling your glass. Don’t be afraid to pop it in the fridge to take the edge off on a hot day (we do tend to drink our wines too warm considering our weather patterns).
It is vibrant red/purple in the glass with juicy aromas of plums and dark summer berry fruits along with higher tones of macerated raspberries and red cherry. It’s deeply dredged with spice and you’ll find hints of violets, roasting meats, freshly turned earth, dark chocolate and cocoa powder.
There is a lovely purity to the fruit on the palate, glossy, vibrant and perfumed. It’s definitely at the lighter end of medium–bodied but that is just perfect for this ravenous wine–drinker.
Fruit–packed, spicy and bright with plenty of character, it should be the wine you grab as you light the barbie.
(The Adelaide Review – Dave Brookes, January 17 2017)
Love the packaging on these wines, and in particular this META range. It’s an interesting turn of events to be releasing a Mataro in the same year as its birth!
Saucy spices, cinch of stalk and smoke, blackberry and boysenberry. Medium bodied, grainy and stalky, but with nutty and plump bramble fruit, cool acidity and a pleasant spray of amaro herbs in the aftertaste. Lovely wine. Good now, likely better later.
Rated : 92+ Points
Tasted : Dec.16
Alcohol : 14.1%
Price : $35
Closure : Screwcap
Drink : 2017 – 2026
(Gary Walsh – The Wine Front, 7 December 2016)
2015 Meta Shiraz
Wild yeast, 22% whole bunches, unfined and unfiltered. Shiraz grown in the Stonewell, Eden Valley and Moppa sub-regions.
It’s definitely one for the whole bunch brigade. It might only make up 22% of the mix, but the influence is clear and relatively dangerous. Needless to say, it had me more or less swooning from the outset. Nuts, herbs, woodsmoke, strings of greenery – it’s all there. Of course, and all-importantly, there’s a fresh burst of black cherry and blackberry-like fruit flavour too; it has the style, but it also has the substance. Whether or not you think this wine takes things too far will depend on your view of the bunchy style. There’s a screw of dry, slightly bitter, tannin here too, compounding the wine’s in-your-face nature. Personally I think it’s a stand-out red, particularly after a stint in the decanter.
Rated : 94 Points – Campbell Mattinson
Tasted : Dec.16
Alcohol : 14%
Price : $35
Closure : Screwcap
Drink : 2018 – 2026+
(Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front, 9 December 2016)
2015 The Schiller Shiraz
I’d like a glass of the Schwarz Schiller Shiraz please. Try saying that once you’ve had a couple. It’s grown on just 400 vines, rescued from the bulldozer, planted in 1881. GW wasn’t so keen on the 2014 but personally, I loved it. I love this 2015 as much or more.
It’s a bold shiraz but it remains fresh and, more to the point, tremendously smooth in a seductive way. Barossa shiraz for lovers of Barossa shiraz. Redcurrant, plum and blackberry meet caramel, earth and coal. It’s seamless, it’s delicious, it’s satisfying. Right up there for quality.
Rated : 94 Points
Tasted : June 17
Alcohol : 14.5%
Price : $75
Closure : Screwcap
Drink : 2018 – 2032+
(Campbell Mattinson – The Wine Front, 1 June 2017)
2015 Nitschke Block Shiraz
From a vineyard planted in 1968. Wild yeast fermented with whole bunches, basket pressed, bottled unfiltered.
It’s a nutty shiraz with herbs strewn throughout; whole-bunches have had a clear impact, though they certainly don’t dominate. We’re otherwise straight into earth, black cherry, leather and cocoa territory, a subtle note of animale blending in nicely with those nut/herb/fennel characters. Tannin rumbles through the finish. Oak adds a gentle toastiness. It’s mid-weight and well-polished but has just enough darkness, and attitude. It’s all quite exemplary – especially once given a chance to breathe.
Rated : 93 Points
Tasted : Jan17
Alcohol : 14.2%
Price : $40
Closure : Screwcap
Drink : 2017 – 2025+
(Campbell Mattinson – The Winefront, 20 January 2017)
2015 Thiele Road Grenache
From a block planted in 1941. Open fermented (wild), most of it de-stemmed but 15% included as whole bunches. Extended maceration by virtue of the fact that the ferment was unhurried. All into French oak thereafter.
This is such a bright wine. So lively. It tastes of cherries, oranges, dry spices and undergrowth, the flow and flavour all working quite beautifully. It’s a mouth-watering red. It has savoury complexity but it’s really about juicy fruit. It’s the kind of wine you just want to hook into.
Rated : 91 Points
Tasted : Jan17
Alcohol : 14%
Price : $38
Closure : Screwcap
Drink : 2017 – 2022+
(Campbell Mattinson – The Winefront, 20 January 2017)