The positive results of Swinney’s meticulous viticulture are, perhaps, felt most strongly in the Mourvèdre. For years, Rob Mann deployed this fruit to Swinney’s Southern Rhône-inspired blend, which became increasingly difficult as the quality kept rising. This is the third straight bottling, and wine is basking in the spotlight. This is the Mourvèdre show!
Swinney’s Mourvèdre is drawn from dry-grown bush vines on Wilsons Pool Vineyard, planted in the early 2000s on rich gravelly-loam soils. The fruit was picked by hand when flavour and tannin were perfectly ripe, then sorted berry by berry and transferred via gravity to a single stainless-steel fermenter. Bunches were bumped up a touch this year—a well-judged 30% highlighting the variety’s “distinctive ferrous qualities, fine structure and wild spice”. It spent 11 days on skins before being pressed to fine-grained large-format French oak, where it matured for 11 months.
Mann says Swinney’s Mourvèdre is the wine that most clearly expresses the site’s signature ferrous, rusty nail character. Violet, lavender, and blue/blackberries provide the lift, with salumi, pepper, and gravel tugging below. The palate is plush and bright, with a line of sweet, pure fruit and powdery tannins puffing out across the back and extending the graphite and iron mineral notes wide and long.