Alkina Old Quarter 2019

The Old Quarter refers to a section of the Alkina vineyard planted in the 1950s to the district’s classic varieties, in this instance the reds grenache, shiraz and mataro. The crew here consider this the purest expression of the site as a whole, Alkina manager Amelia Nolan calling it “our most important achievement”.

Having mapped the block into tiny sections with unique geologies, each called a polygon, the fruit from five separate patches was fermented individually with indigenous yeast in concrete tulips with an average of 70% whole bunch included before maturation in a mix of concrete and older, larger French oak. The makeup of 50% grenache, 29% shiraz and 21% mataro weaves together a multitude of aromatic and flavour characters: charcuterie, blood pudding, dark plum, dark choc and orange with an underlying chalk and talc composition that acts as a textural foundation to its lifted top notes. The crowning achievement here is a completeness, a symbiotic and harmonious wine that defies being deconstructed into its parts. All class and right at the top of the league in this genre.    

Tony Love

Journalist at Winepilot

Tony is best known for his 10 years as News Corp’s National Wine Writer, with weekly columns in major metropolitan mastheads throughout Australia including The Adelaide Advertiser, The Sydney Daily Telegraph and the Melbourne Herald Sun. He continues to write feature articles and columns for all the major Australian wine media publications. Tony has also worked as a restaurant reviewer, section editor, book editor, digital content provider, journalism teacher and was named Wine Communicators of Australia 2018 Legend of the Vine (SA). Find out more about Tony at tonylove.com.au

Wine writingwine critic