2022 Dandelion Menagerie of the Barossa Grenache Shiraz Mataro, Barossa Valley

Crushed velvet and black velour. Dark chocolate and liquorice; ripe plums picked at dawn. Musk, fennel, aniseed, rose petals crushed in a small child’s hand. Salts and minerals wrought wistfully from the earth. Deep and dark fruit aromatics that never-the-less cannot but help display a late summer’s playfulness. Plush but pert fruit flavours; textural in feel, but long in length. This is giving red wine with an unhesitant acid keel. The fruit flavours are luxurious: cherry, plum and musk; then the faint tannic texture of pear skin rights everything. A sweet and sour finish, as if there was an open bottle of sherry vinegar somewhere in the room. This wine finishes with a mineral quality - all those washing and running savoury tannins. Drink Try this versatile red wine with homemade falafel, some garlic and yoghurt dip, and a few grilled merguez sausages. Grenache’s fruit, shiraz’s earth, and mataro’s depth will make everything sing. The Barossa meets the Barbary Coast.