Bright, deep garnet. Spice laced, smoky, savory notes dominate when the bottle is first opened. With air aromas transit through black tea, charred meat, green pepper corn, wood smoke and suede, to roasted nuts, red and black cherry and high transient notes of citrus oils and jasmine. Restrained and relatively closed on the palate initially. Mid-weight, with a keen balance of both flesh and bones fruit and structure - tangy dried herb edged fruit opens up to polished, fresh black fruits. Focused and pure, has great line.

When Pete and Magali purchased the Dominion Vineyard in 2018, they were particularly excited to work with a tiny block of Chenin Blanc vines almost 100 years old. This is their first solo release from this ancient fruit. The Chenin fruit from this old site holds natural breadth and intensity of flavour, so Pete picks early to capture natural freshness and preserve balance. The fruit is crushed without destemming and pressed to French oak for fermentation, followed by partial malolactic conversion and maturation in demi-muids. What a wine this is! All those juicy, exuberantly fruity Chenin Blanc aromas and flavours, with the typical Spinifex thumbprint of texture and salinity. Watch this space, if this first release is anything to go by then this may soon become one of the country's leading Chenin Blancs.

Vital, youthful and vigorous. Joven-style Tempranillo with bright, punchy fruit aromatics of damson plum and mulberry that sit above darker dried herb and wood smoke notes. Mid-weight palate with lively red berry and tart stone fruit flavours that mesh with nervy, bright fruit acids and light, snappy tannins. Harvested from a single, elevated vineyard in the southern Barossa foothills. Handpicked early in the season to capture lively fruit and retain natural fruit acids, selected bunches were fully destemmed prior to fermentation in a small open fermenter. The young wine was allowed to mature on its lees for six months prior to bottling without filtration. Spinifex was started in 2001 with the opportunity to source some great old vine Mataro growing in deep white drift-sand on the Barossa Valleys Western Ridge. Owned by husband and wife team, Peter Schell and Magali Gely, their focus is on regional wines from the traditional Mediterranean grape varieties that have been grown successfully in Australia for over 150 years - Shiraz, Mataro, Grenache, Cinsault, Carignan, Ugni Blanc, Grenache Gris, Marsanne and Semillon. They aim to make wines that display signatures of vineyard provenance and vintage, show regional typicity and have a consistent thread of 'house style' that reflects their preferences and experiences with wine. The wines they choose to make are predominately blends, the synergies derived from blending wines of differing character enhance the subtle complexities, even textures and profound personalities delivered from great old vine vineyards.

A Mediterranean variety that naturally holds acidity and is used to add freshness to the white blends of the Rhone Valley. The fruit for this is sourced from a southern Barossa Vineyard with limestone based soils. The wine is made using natural acid and indigenous yeasts and is unfiltered. Although this is the first release of this variety as a straight up style, Pete has a long history of using Clairette as a blending component of the much loved Lola.

Vinification is simple and centred around preserving the delicacy, freshness and vitality found in early picked old vine fruit. This Spinifex Rose consists of Grenache (52%), Cinsault (30 %), Mataro (14%) and Ugni blanc (4%). Bunches from mature (averaging 65 years of age) dry drown vineyards are hand harvested and the crushed and left to macerate for between 4 and 48 hrs prior to pressing.

Spinifex Papillon is a vibrant and luscious red from the Baross Valley that is a blend of Grenache, Cinsault and Mataro. Made in the typical modern Australian mould, the Papillon is bright and aromatic with lifted cherry, red currant and spicy raspberry. A very perfumed wine with earthy flavours of beetroot and white pepper which lends itself to being a terrific food style wine with lovely acid structure and a medium weight.

This is the debut release of Spinifex Grenache Gris, and it's a wine that we should all be very excited about. When Pete Schell purchased the Dominion Vineyard in 2018, they quickly set to work planting varieties they believed suitable to this unique path of land, including the scarce Southern Rhone white variety Grenache Gris. This marks the first official release of this wine, and it's a beauty. The fruit spent a few hours on skins, before fermentation in old oak puncheons, followed by eight months’ maturation on lees in foudre. It's packed with glorious white and yellow fruits, with some creamy texture from the winemaking influence, and a pithy, salty finish that pulls it all together. Great with food or on its own, and a statement about the suitability of this variety to the Barossa Valley.