Barossa 14.5% Diam $48 Source- Sample
La Maline
In the brown dining room, its perfumed air
Full of the smell of wax and fruit, at ease
I gathered a plate of who knows what Belgian
Dish, and marvelled in my enormous chair.
Eating I listened to the clock – silent, happy.
The kitchen door opened with a gust,
- and the serving girl came in, who knows why,
Shawl half off, hair dressed cunningly.
And, touching her little finger trembling
To her cheek, a pink and white velvet-peach,
And making a childish pout with her lips,
She tidied the plates to make me at ease:
Then – just like that – to get a kiss for certain -
She whispered: “Feel: It’s caught a cold, my cheek…”
- Arthur Rimbaud
This wine has pretty much sold out and the 2008 version will take the name “La Maline”, or The Sly Girl (some suggest the translation should be “wicked” not “sly” but I think that says more about them than anything else). Love it.
And I loved this wine. It begins with an extremely lifted nose of fragrant raspberry and rich blackberry along with violets and jasmine, star anise and cocoa. Toasty oak is tastefully applied, adding a little mocha to the equation. Supremely structured by gorgeous acidity and “to die for” tannins, the flavours are intense but layered and harnessed for best effect. There’s some spice and earth too, but it’s the electric vibrancy which enthralls me. Very exotic and very sexy.
“The boy was in the hallway drinking a glass of tea
from the other end of the hallway a rhthym was generating
Another boy was sliding up the hallway,
He merged perfectly with the hallway,
He merged perfectly, the mirror in the hallway”
-Patti Smith, Horses/Land of a 100 dances/ La Mer(de)
Bring on 2008′s La Maline. This is what Shiraz Viognier is all about. “Go Rimbaud, Go Rimbaud…”
Winery website- http://www.spinifexwines.com.au/
This is a divine bit of writing. If the wine is even half as good then it must be bloody marvellous!
Why thank you very much! I will confess I put a bit of my heart & soul into it. And the wine is, at the very least, half as good
It really did inspire the post.
Jeremy – this wine was advertised for sale on one of the wine websites today… I wonder would you still give the same inspired prose if you re-tasted today?
That’s a really good question Jesse. Over the course of the last four years there is no doubt my tastes have changed (I won’t say ‘evolved’ as that would imply improvement). Ultimately I’ll never know when it comes to this specific wine as I don’t have another bottle tucked away.
On the idea of consistency when it comes to reviewing wine, I personally think it’s a bit of a balancing act. You don’t want to be all over the place with starkly contrasting opinions and preferences every week yet I’m actually really happy to embrace the idea of the critic being on a journey over time rather than remaining a static entity. But I’m sure there are other pints of view though.
I thought you strongly disliked Australian winemakers using European words or titles for their wines? I guess you aren’t a static entity Jeremy.
I’m of the opinion that this differs markedly from Mick, as the reference (as far as I understand it) is to the title of a specific poem.
For those unaware of previous discourse: http://winewilleatitself.com/2013/12/10/2012-yelland-papps-delight-vin-de-soif/
My mistake Jeremy. It was from that post, but was a comment from one of the other readers, not in fact from yourself. Apologies.
No worries whatsoever Mick.