Swinney Mourvèdre 2021

If winelovers were all a bit stunned when Swinney started offering amazing Grenache from Frankland River, they might be positively gobsmacked when they see what they are doing with Mourvèdre (including their Rosé). This is from dry grown, bush vines from their Wilson’s Pool vineyard, which was planted back in the early 2000’s. The fruit was berry sorted into a single stainless steel fermenter by way of gravity. 22% whole bunches were incorporated and wild fermentation was used. The wine then spent eleven days on skins before it was pressed to fine-grained, large format, seasoned French oak for eleven months maturation on skins. Deep red/garnet colour. The nose is all exotic spices, florals, cherries, raspberries, black olives and warm handfuls of freshly turned earth. One can almost envisage Lang Hancock back in the day when he first grabbed a handful of that red soil. There is an appealing plushness to all this. A wine of mid-length, with fine acidity, there is real grip here too. Leave it for three or four years to allow it to fully come together and reveal its glories at their best. Then drink it over the next six to ten years.