In 2023, with a cool vintage, a section of our estate Shiraz in Willunga, with low sugar and good flavour, 600kg was hand picked and processed into three small ferments of 200kg each. Three levels, 0%, 25% and 50%. Ferment temperature was allowed to peak at 28C, plunged twice per day and total time on skins was 19 days.
From a 65-year-old vineyard at Willunga, the wine is described as "fragrant and frisky with boysenberry and light blackcurrant flavours sliding into sweet, woodsy spice and cedar."
"From the subregion of Tatachilla, planted on clay punctuated with ironstone, over a limestone substrata. Hand-picked fruit, no adds and fermented wild in open fermenters. 28 days on skins, all up. 18 months in used French wood. Unfiltered. A great colour: explosive in terms of its pulpy, inky opacity and purple edges. It almost glows! Possibly the finest iteration of this wonderful variety in Australia to date. Everything about it makes me smile. Black-fruit allusions, smoked meats, iodine, ample florals and best of all, a broad dissection of the rich palate by ferruginous tannins: burly, gritty and shaped to draw saliva to ready one for the meal ahead.
- Ned Goodwin, Halliday Australian Wine Companion Feb 2021 95/100
On skins for 15 days, with a fermentation lasting 9 days. The fruit was handpicked and destemmed only, while the must had no acid adjustment and went through with a wild fermentation. Upon pressing, both the free run and pressings were combined and after racking off gross lees, the wine was matured in two 2-year-old French barriques. The 2021 vintage was cool and dry and the wine had a certain subtlety about it, so it was French oak all the way! After spending 11 months in oak, the wine was lightly fined and bottled unfiltered.
La Grenouille from Smidge Wines is a Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from an immaculate vineyard in the western Willunga area at the southern end of greater McLaren Vale in South Australia. The vines on the block are approximately 60 years old. In the glass, La Grenouille immediately shows its hand with a deep colour, almost black with a magenta rim. The aromas are not shy, with lots of dark cherries, plums, with spice and tobacco. The palate continues the story; the Mediterranean climate of McLaren Vale regularly delivers Cabernet with power, elegance and balance. La Grenouille is no exception, exhibiting dark fruits and chocolate with a balance of juiciness and subtle savoury notes, finishing with long fine tannins. Drink now or cellar carefully until 2035.
Aromas of blackberries, licorice, dried herbs, plums and spice. Flavours are full and rich, certainly in the dark fruit spectrum, but there is also a minty coolness to the palate as well as quite grippy and textured tannins and lively acidity that keep the flavours fresh and focused - Aaron Brasher The Real Review 93/100
The Smidge Wines S celebrates the origin of Smidge with an extremely limited release wine that promises only the best of Barossa Shiraz. Each year, Matt tastes through all the barrels and selects the very best for this flagship wine. The first release was nominated for the George Mackay Trophy as Australia's Best Exported Wine. Smidge S has consistently returned 94+ point wines since Matt created that first vintage back in 2002. In the glass, the ‘S’ has a black core with a deep red rim. There are elegant aromas of red/black fruits and spicy, earthy notes with hints of grilled meats, graphite and controlled oak. On the palate, the fruit continues with rich plums and blueberries with delicate spice and chocolate which all roll onto a juicy palate with fine tannins that go on and on. The elegant bottle with minimalist labelling makes this an attractive and highly desirable gift for those who know their wine and love shiraz.
95 Points "Really youthful, purple and deeply-coloured in the glass. The aromas are all about dark fruits and then there’s dried herbs, sage, black olive, licorice and a cool graphite edge. Flavours are rich, layered and mouthfilling. Plenty of mulberry, dark cherry, anise and spice, there’s a lushness to the fruit but there’s ample savoury, structured and complexing tannin that gives the wine real definition, length and seriousness. A really delicious wine 01 MAY 2021" Aaron Brasher The Real Review
"A grand man in stature and personality with a commanding presence and cheeky humour he was passionate, unstoppable, generous to the core, and according to many ahead of his time. It seems appropriate that our Mclaren Vale Shiraz shares many rich characteristics of this great man whose memory remains a legend among us Smidge Wines are a tribute to the small things in life that make it all worthwhile" - Matt Wenk
