La Maline is Spinifex’s purest and most finely structured expression of Barossa/Eden Shiraz. As with the 2021, the extended growing season and comparatively cool conditions in 2022 provided fruit with the style, elegance and restraint so vital to this great wine’s DNA. This is a roughly equal split between Pete and Magali’s own Rostein Vineyard in Eden Valley and Materne Vineyard in Moppa in the Barossa Valley.
Rostein was planted in the 1950s and sits high in the valley at close to 500 metres. Materne was planted in the 1920s. Like Rostein, this vineyard is organically dry farmed by hand. The fruit fermented with indigenous yeasts in small, open-top stainless-steel tanks over 12 to 35 days. Pete added a bucket of Viognier halfway through the ferment to lend lift and complexity to the wine. Maturation was in French oak barriques and 700-litre barrels (approximately 35% new) on light lees for 22 months before blending and bottling.
This is killer Shiraz. Highly aromatic and savoury, its muscular frame is underscored by a sense of agility and lifted perfume. Dark blue fruits, warm brown spice and earthy notes float like a butterfly, while the svelte structure, stylish power and sweetly enveloping close stings like a bee. It’s all class.