3 products
2023 Smalltown Vineyards The Black Craft Shiraz
Regular price £16.99Germans were the first free immigrants into Australia in the 1850s onwards. They planted Shiraz in Barossa. Germans also invented letterpress in the 1500s. The suspicion around the “magick” of a printing press coupled with the inky hands of the printers meant that the art became known as the Black Craft. The wine is an homage to both the German influence of the oldest wine-making in Australia, as well as the letterpress.
Tasting Notes
A compelling, dark and rich chocolately beast. A classic Barossa Shiraz with intense savoury flavours of thick blackberry compote, black pepper and typical iron-rich beefy flavours. Not a hint of jam here, no sweetness, this is serious Shiraz for grown-ups with balanced acidity, a touch of cocao powder in the finish and tremendous length.
Production Method
This Shiraz is sourced from the finest available vineyard sites across the premium Northern Barossa Valley including for the most part Greenock, Western Ridge and Ebenezer. Aged 11 months in a variety of oaks, all American and French, new and old, around 35% new. All oaks were AP John, Barossa coopered. As usual withSmalltown, it was fermented in open fermenters. They don’t set the blades too close together during crushing so a fair bit of whole berry in the ferment which gives the wine generous fruit and soft tannins.
Specifications
| Year | 2023 |
| Bottle Size | 750ml |
| Cultivar | 100% Syrah |
| Country | Australia |
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Alcohol content
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14% alc vol
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| Units of Alcohol per Bottle | 10.5 units |
| Type | Red Wine |
| Food Matches | As the name implies, black is the key - anything chargrilled would be superb here, so think griddle pans and barbecues! |
| Allergen Information | Contains sulphites |
| Origin | South Australia |
| Appellation | Barossa |
2022 Smalltown Vineyards 'The Good Luck Club' Cabernet Sauvignon
Regular price £17.99
It's a big glass of juicy theatre!
The dual-facing label to shows either The Good Luck Club (front) or The Bad Luck Club (back) illustrated in that most animated of media: 19th Century Japanese Kabuki masks. It’s about the highs, lows, ayes and noes of winemaking, chance and the mad undulations of human existence.
Tasting Notes
Summer pudding reaches from the glass, there is an abundance of blackberry and cassis fruit with a naughty creaminess of oak that marries on the palate for a bold pastiche of old vine Barossa Cabernet.
Production
The Smalltown block was purchased in 2016, 40 hectares of 28-year-old Shiraz and Cabernet in the premium Ebenezer District of the Barossa Valley. This wine was aged in new and tertiary French oak for 24 months. The oak lends a subtle texture and structure to the fruit leaving the palate fresh so this is a bright, varietal Cab that wears its oak lightly as a structural veil rather than anything more monstrous.
Producer
Smalltown Vineyards express many of the Barossa’s prized districts form Gomersal, Kalimna as well as the Eden Valley and beyond. We work with exceptional vineyards simply expressed using minimal intervention, basket press where relevant, natural ferments in open-top fermenters to best capture the Barossa’s magical flavours. We have a lot of fun with labels because, well because we can. It’s only wine after all…
A note about Sustainability
As of the 1st July, 2019, Australia changed from its previous sustainable programme called EntWine to Sustainable Winegrowing Australia. Smalltown Vineyards is a participant in this programme, which assists with tools and resources to enhance business sustainability, meeting customer sustainability requirements and sustainability claims made by participants.
Awards
- 2020 IWC Bronze (2017 Vintage)
Alan's Tasting Notes
"This is a cracker - loads of red berry and blackcurrant aromas and flavours with a structural creaminess as scaffolding in the background. Balance, complexity and length are all perfect - a real well put together glass of wine - sublime and great value at £13.99" Tasted Dec 2021.
Specifications
| Year | 2022 |
| Bottle Size | 750ml |
| Cultivar | 100% Cabernet Sauvignon |
| Country | Australia |
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| Units of Alcohol per Bottle | 10.9 units |
| Type | Red Wine |
| Cellaring Potential | Awaiting info |
| Allergen Information | Contains sulphites |
| Food Matches | It’s lovely with steak tartare, seared tuna, roast Mediterranean veg and some crunchy, matured hard cheese. |
| Origin | South Australia |
| Appellation | Barossa Valley |
2019 Smalltown Vineyards Clovella Mataro Grenache
Regular price £19.49Flovilla Thatch was the dentist’s assistant in the Russ Meyer boob-flick “Beneath the Valley of the Super-Vixens". The name was mis-remembered after a heady night of blending but stuck and this vineyard has been known as Clovella since. The label bears no relation to Russ Meyer's steamy ouput but the sultry nature of the wine does. The design inspiration is all about the meeting of mouths, that energy before lips meet, whether meeting a glass of wine or each other. Two varieties blending into one.
Tasting Notes
It starts with cassis, a nose full of promise. Clove and black pepper spice. The palate is dark and sultry with a dried fruit appeal. It finishes with a gentle lick of oak from the time the wine spends in oak.
Production
Clovella is a field planting of roughly 60/40 Grenache and Mataro. It is a 40 year old vineyard from the Gomersal sub-district of the Barossa Valley that Rolf Binder has been cultivating himself for many years. The wine spends 22 months in older French oak. The purpose of this wine is to show Mataro and Grenache with some development rather than the super-juicy-young-bright Grenache of the moment.
Producer
Smalltown Vineyards express many of the Barossa’s prized districts form Gomersal, Kalimna as well as the Eden Valley and beyond. We work with exceptional vineyards simply expressed using minimal intervention, basket press where relevant, natural ferments in open-top fermenters to best capture the Barossa’s magical flavours. We have a lot of fun with labels because, well because we can. It’s only wine after all…
A note about Sustainability
As of the 1st July, 2019, Australia changed from its previous sustainable programme called EntWine to Sustainable Winegrowing Australia. Smalltown Vineyards is a participant in this programme, which assists with tools and resources to enhance business sustainability, meeting customer sustainability requirements and sustainability claims made by participants.
Specifications
| Year | 2019 |
| Bottle Size | 750ml |
| Cultivar | 60% Grenache, 40% Mataro |
| Country | Australia |
| Alcohol content | 14.5% alc vol |
| Units of Alcohol per Bottle | 10.9 units |
| Type | Red Wine |
| Cellaring Potential | Awaiting info |
| Allergen Information | Contains sulphites |
| Food Matches |
Braises and stews: long slow cooked roasts of pork or lamb. |
| Origin | South Australia |
| Appellation | Barossa Valley |
