DAN'S WINE BLOG- THIS WEEK'S WINE REVIEW

This week I am reviewing a cracking?MATARO?from the Clare Valley.

MATARO?has had a bad rap here in Australia and is often associated with cheap wine. This came about as the sales of fortified wines slumped in the 1970s and table wine sales took off, resulting in lots of?MATARO?that had been used for making port being turned into poor quality table wine.

As a result of this winemakers who produced high quality?MATARO?wines, usually called them Mourvèdre (it’s French name).?Hard to say, hard to pronounce and hard to remember!?It is a shame that they did not call it by its proper/original name, Monastrell –?Yep,?MATARO?originates from Spain and should be called Monastrell which is so much easier to say than, Mourvèdre!

Anyhow, Australia is blessed with some very old?MATARO?vines, which have the capacity to produce exceptional wines, such as the?KILIKANOON?2020 CLARE VALLEY ASHTON 1920 MATARO?– The vines were planted in 1920 making this vintage its Centenary. Unusually, this wine is bottled in a Riesling shaped bottle, which really makes it stand out from the crowd.

The grapes off the 100-year-old vines were open fermented and produced a glorious wine with a vibrant purple colour, elegant complex bouquet of red fruits and florals with a hint dried herbs. The palate offers a gorgeous mouthful of seamless red and black fruit flavours with excellent depth and a superb, silky, lingering finish. Quite amazing in such a young wine, yet at the same time has the potential to age well.

This wine is a truly outstanding of what a well-made?MATARO?can achieve.?

I might add that all of the other Kilikanoon wines that I have tasted so far are?“none too dusty”?either, especially the Kilikanoon 2018 “Covenant” Shiraz.

Cheers, have a really good and safe week enjoying great Australian wines!

Winery Link:??

www.kilikanoon.com.au