Joshua Cooper Blanche Barkley Old Vines Shiraz 2023

$90.00

Unique. There is simply no shiraz like this anywhere in the world, and it is yet more evidence (as if any were needed) of Australia’s most important varietal. The most complex wine of the range. Forceful aromatics of blackcurrant, blackberry, redcurrant, cranberry, lavender, violets and sweet/savoury Middle Eastern spices. The savoury elements are strong, as with all the wines; interwoven with the rich, full bodied fruit. Baking spices, licorice, black pepper, soy, oyster shell and squid ink. The tannins are a bit more luscious, but this must be seen in the context of Josh Cooper, for they are formidable and stiff as old rope. The most ‘Australian’ shiraz I could imagine. Waters Wine Co

 

Bright ruby red. Immediately aromatic and spicy, bright black and white peppercorns, liquorice strap and creamy black cherry and raspberry  fruit with a potpourri lift and ironstone complexity.

All gaining depth with aeration. The palate is bright fruited, fleshy and full- speaking of the cool site and season in a warm region. Black cherry and liquorice lead, again backed by pepper and spice, framed by the dense tannic structure from these old dry grown vines. A very “Burgundy” style shiraz. Producer’s notes

 

Planted 1970 by the Reimer family Blanche Barkley is a relatively unknown gem. The vines have been dry-grown from planting on an alluvial fan intermixed with shale, ironstone and mudstone in close proximity to the famed Balgownie. Weeds are removed by whipper snipper, while the fruit load in managed on a vine but vine basis ensuring each is capable of reaching full maturity. The resultant fruit is bright and fresh, while also loaded with a slew of fine tannin. 2024 sees a Cabernet Sauvignon produced from the site that sites comfortably alongside the Balgownie bottling. Once hand harvested the fruit was entirely de-stemmed, then partially foot crushed before transfer to open fermenters where it remained for three weeks. The must was allowed to soak until natural fermentation commenced and was then extracted with a combination of pumping over, delestage and pigeage before basket pressing. Elevage took place in a combination of Spanish terracotta Tinaja pot (33%) new Stockinger 300l (30%) and seasoned thin staved Bordeaux coopered barriques for 12 months, before four months in stainless steal after assemblage.

 

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Producer Profile

Josh Cooper is the son of Nelly and Allan Cooper of Cobaw Ridge winery in the Macedon Ranges, a producer of incomparable regard. Interestingly, Josh sources his fruit from outside the family farm, but growing up in the Macedon Ranges he has an intimate knowledge of the region, its vineyards and growers. We have not yet come across a finer suite of negociant wines in Australia.

Bright, pure, translucent, textural, delicate and poised, with a long and lingering carry. Layered complexity, flavours and textures interwoven, seamlessly stitched, the balance is perfect, no flavour or texture dominating, an equality of components.

Beautiful flavours are one thing, but what elevates Josh Cooper’s wines into grandness is their texture, shape and tannin. Billowing, eddying – their shape all movement, pirouetting, rippling, and caressing. No wine feels as another, but they all share a gentle palate presence, a pelt of velvet, silk or longer woodier tannins.

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