Spinifex’s portfolio is stacked with quality, yet two wines play a particularly significant role in Pete and Magali’s story. Indigene has been a cornerstone of the portfolio since day one, when, in 2001, the pair had the opportunity to source some great old-vine Mataro growing in deep, white sand on the Barossa Valley’s Western Ridge. A year later, we saw the first release of Spinifex’s Shiraz flagship, La Maline, then labelled simply as Shiraz Viognier. Both labels helped redefine the style of wine we have come to expect from the Barossa Valley and its surrounding foothills. When Campbell Mattinson writes that “few, if any [Barossa producers] have been more important than Spinifex over the past 20 years,” these two wines lit the fire.It’s unusual for a great producer not to bottle their top wines(s)—both regional benchmarks—every year. Indigene was not made in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020; there was a La Maline in 2015, but it also skipped the three latter years. This is not a case of good vintage vs bad vintage. Rather, when the shoe fits. The essence of the year must fit the orchestration of these unique wines like a glove—a symphony of complexity, contours, charm and elegance. Sometimes, you are judged on the wines you don’t make as much as those you do. Many of the sites Pete works with are marginal, meaning they don’t deliver transcendent fruit year in and year out. So, when it all comes together in vintages like 2022, then the game is on.“2022 was a pretty polite vintage,” says Schell. Devoid of heat spikes or heavy rain events marked by cool, unhurried conditions, it played right into this winemaker’s gnarled hands. “Nice warm days and cool nights, that’s how I like it,” he told us. “I’ll take that over hot and fast any day.” The beauty of these wines is that they are not dense or forceful; they are full-flavoured, fresh and supple wines that place charm and engaging beauty above power and big structure. Pete Schell blends wine like Matisse blended colour. Schell’s Mataro crop was near-perfect this year. Hence, it headlines Indigene, while La Maline once again comprises the crown jewels of Spinifex’s Shiraz crop. Finally, the Moppa Shiraz, from one of the most unique and characterful sites in the Barossa, showcases Schell’s flawless ability to harness and channel raw Barossa power into wines of sleek charm, perfume and length. Benchmark Barossa.