Swinney has never been less than awesome, creating new benchmarks and pushing boundaries. The 2021 vintage reds are the best since 2019 and the most charming and delicious. The vintage was cool, hence the harvest was late, creating ideal conditions for wines of delicacy and charm.
One of the most pleasing aspects of this release is Swinney’s embrace of the vintage, and not a pre-determined wine style. The different shape and structure to previous vintages is down to the conditions, as opposed to the stylistic aspirations of the producer. The front palate is less attacking, the mid palates are full of luscious sweet fruit and the wines are framed by gentle acidity and lacy tannins. More Barbaresco than Barolo if you like, and all the better for it.
The 2022 Mourvèdre rose is a new benchmark. Anything but a Bandol wannabee. Very much in the Swinney mould; pure, precise, complex and very fine. Indeed, Vintage 2022 is shaping up to be a good’en, as also evidenced by the Riesling. Very much a confirmation of style; bright intense flavours, rich, powerful, textured but not textural, pithy and salty.
Swinney is an ambitious producer, make no doubt of it, and these most recent releases confirm them as one of Australia’s best.
Gosh, a real step up in intensity from the 2021. Very complex aromatics of salted citrus, lime peel, spring jasmine, grapefruit, orange blossom and spiced apple. Rich and concentrated, extremely powerful, super intense, salty, pithy, textural and precise. Compact and coiled in 2022, requiring a few years to unwind and flesh out. Promises to be very long lived, and one of the best ever released.
This is Mourvèdre rose form the Frankland River and it’s wonderful. Setting a new benchmark in Australian rose for intensity, line, length and the wonderful interplay between purity of fruit and subtle textural generosity. Aromas of rose petals, strawberry, grapefruit, oyster shell, pepper and saltbush. Utterly present, pure and precise. Plush, zesty, pithy with apricot, blood orange and grapefruit. Very dry, indeed the acidity is elevated, woven with super fine texture. Linear in style and razor sharp. Wow!
A higher level of refinement has crept into the 2021’s, compared to the sleek, puckering wines of 2020. Pretty aromatics of jubey red fruits, tangy hedge fruits and brooding black fruits. Pure, flecked with flowers, ironstone and spice. The fruits are very complex, light and dark, sweet and tangy. The shape and mouthfeel are gentler, more supple and slightly rounder, the tannins of very fine lace. Beautiful wine.
Shiraz/Syrah and Australia. It just works. The 2021 is quiet different from previous releases; rounder in shape, ample with finer, lacier tannins. Not so sleek or linear and a dialling back of the mouth puckering mineral acidity. Blueberry, sweet cherry, violets, raspberry and delicate spice. Plush, without any sense of heaviness, a triumph of a full body in perfect proportions. As charming as it is powerful, finishing with very fine tannins. I think this will surprise in the cellar, despite the gentle grip, for at least two decades.
An underappreciated variety in Australia, but I have no doubt that we will soon be tasting a Farvie Mourvedre, based on the quality of this bottle. Classic aromatics of smokey, earthy, campfire, camphor and dark fruits. Again in 2021 the shape is so different from previous vintages, rounder and somehow a little bit grander. But make no mistake this is very focused. Medium to full bodied, with rich chewy tannins, piquant acidity, the most of all the reds. Bitter chocolate and chalky mouthfeel. Exceedingly layered and complex, haunting, grand, pure and wild all at the same time. The ultimate in sensuousness.
