Wine & Spirits - February 2017 - 77

IMPORTED NEW RELEASES
119939

89 | St Hallett

GRENACHE
118958

93 | Kay Brothers

$40

2014 McLaren Vale Basket Pressed Amery
Vineyard Grenache ^ This spicy, dynamic grenache has distinctive mineral tannins. They
parallel the taste of the charred crust on a
tomato pie, keeping the wine savory even as
the wild strawberry fruit has a hint of sweetness. It's brisk and refreshing, a versatile red
to serve cellar temperature with wild mushroom pizza or something gamey, like grilled
quail. § Quintessential, Napa, CA
119520

92 | Thistledown

$65

2015 McLaren Vale The Absconder Gre-
nache ^ Robert Strangways Wigley founded
this winery in 1894, producing fortifieds
made from grenache. Wirra Wirra still farms
grenache from that era; most of this dry red
grows on 98-year-old vines in Blewitt Springs,
the balance from a block that's 60 years old.
The soils range from deep sand over ironstone to red loam clays and sandstone, the
wine made traditionally, in open-top fermenters with some whole clusters, basket-pressed
and aged in used oak barrels. It's fresh, floral
grenache with crunchy red fruit, spicy pomegranate notes and a light, frisky warmth in
the end. Pour it with anything meaty off the
grill. § Negociants USA, Napa, CA
118823

91 | Cirillo

2014 Barossa Old Vine Grenache (Best
Buy) ^ This wine's tart strawberry flavors
gain herbal spice from tarry tannins. The
reductive, rubber-tire note and minty, herbal
scent of Ricola cough drops should resolve
with some bottle age. The fruit is what lasts. §
Distinguished Vineyards, Overland Park, KS

MOURVEDRE

$27

2015 Barossa Valley Thorny Devil Gre-
nache ^ The Thistledown team sourced this
vintage of Thorny Devil from a vineyard in
Tanunda, where the vines, close to 100 years
of age, were not hit hard by the spring frost.
It's a classic Barossa grenache with fresh, fragrant strawberry top notes and a tannic rasp
below. Immediately appealing (you could
pour it with grilled fennel sausages or roast
squab), this is structured and balanced to
take on some age. § Wine Dogs, Brooklyn, NY
119053

92 | Wirra Wirra

119238
$20

$37

2015 Barossa Valley Survivor Vine The
Vincent Grenache ^ Marco Cirillo tends
what may be the oldest grenache vines in the
world, planted in 1848. This wine comes from
his younger block, planted in 1932, around
the time his family bought the oak foudres
in which he ages The Vincent. He includes
some whole bunches in the fermentation,
using a mix of old oak and stainless steel, producing a crisp, refreshing red with old-vine
depth of flavor. It's a tight, firm, juicy line of
strawberry-red fruit focused along tart apple
acidity. A wine to enjoy in its youth, with rustic country pâté or duck rillettes. § Broadbent
Selections, San Francisco, CA

118938

92 | Ess & See

$28

2015 McLaren Vale Mataro ^ Both rustic
and delicate, this mates cool red fruit to
warm mineral tannins, then lasts in a bright
spark of fruit-skin flavor. It grows in Blewitt
Springs, at a sandy vineyard where the
mataro vines are close to 80 years old, the
grapes fermented mostly as whole berries,
destemmed, and aged in used French
barriques. A sunny red that speaks of a hot,
arid place, this has the scent of Aussie scrub
and the meatiness of the local game that you
might grill to match it. § Biagio Cru and Estate
Wines, New Hyde Park, NY

PINOT NOIR
119241

92 | Timo Mayer

$100

2015 Yarra Valley Pinot Noir ^ Mayer calls
this his "close planted" wine; he produces it
from 6,000 plants on one acre, double the
density of the rest of his Bloody Hill vineyard. He includes all the stems in one portion
of this ferment, accounting for 40 percent of
the total blend. That pumps up the spice in
a high-toned peppercorn note and amplifies
the wine's black fruit density. Tasted blind,
you might mistake this for a cool-climate
syrah; it's smoky, woodsy, autumnal, umami.
Cellar it to allow the wine to show all its
depths. § Vine Street Imports, Mount Laurel, NJ
119258

90 | BK Wines

$65

2015 Lenswood-Adelaide Hills Gower
Single Vineyard Pinot Noir ^ Brendon Keys
makes this cool-climate pinot with a lot of
stems and no added yeast, emphasizing the
variety's savory, herbal side. It's light in color
and in tart wild strawberry flavor, a crisp red
that's compellingly drinkable with rillettes. §
Vine Street Imports, Mount Laurel, NJ

90 | Timo Mayer

$50

90 | Timo Mayer

$100

2015 Yarra Valley Bloody Hill Pinot Noir ^
A shape-shifting pinot, this carries weighty
extract in its big-boned power. Then it
shows vibrant acidity tied into green-peppercorn spice, cool and foresty. Grown in
the rocky, volcanic soils of Mayer's vineyard
in Upper Yarra, this pinot moves back and
forth between earthy and dark and open and
bright.§ Vine Street Imports, Mount Laurel, NJ
119240
2015 Yarra Valley Dr. Mayer Pinot Noir ^ Dr.
Mayer comes from the same vines as Mayer's
"close planted" pinot (also recommended
here). The difference is that Mayer includes
all the stems in this lot, which gives the wine a
tangy, foresty scent and flavor. It's lean, with
a crunchy freshness to the cherry fruit, and
an appealingly bitter note of herbs and earth.
An intriguing wine that will gain elegance
with age. § Vine Street Imports, Mount Laurel, N

RED BLENDS
119048

93 | Henschke

$54

93 | Some Young Punks

$30

2015 Barossa Valley Johann's Garden ^
Old-vine, dry-grown grenache makes up 70
percent of this blend and shows off the plump
brightness of fresh-crushed strawberries.
Together with mataro (25 percent) and a
little blueberry depth of shiraz, this comes
together in a brisk and friendly red, its juicy
sweetness shot through with enough air to
keep it light and spicy. This isn't complex,
but it is pretty delicious and beautifully fresh. §
Negociants USA, Napa, CA
119236
2015 McLaren Vale Naked on Roller
Skates ^ Though their labels are based on
movie posters, this trio brings serious winemaking chops: Colin McBryde is a tattoo'd
PhD in yeast named Young Gun of Wine in
2009; Jen Gardner is another nerdy PhD,
and Nic Bourne is the assistant winemaker
at McLaren Vale Vintners. Bourne blends
this wine from shiraz grown in cracking black
clay soil with 10 percent mataro from welldrained sandy loam. Only a small fraction of
the wine sees any oak, from neutral French
barriques, capturing mineral freshness along
with a meaty, cumin-like spice. It has the
umami, rancio character of a natural wine,
with a dark edge of black vinegar, but it also
sustains freshness-so you get both mataro's
horse-stable scents as well as the roses growing outside. Decant this and watch as it continues to gain freshness and beautiful detail
with air. § Vine Street Imports, Mount Laurel, NJ
119056
WINE & SPIRITS

FEBRUARY 2017

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - February 2017