2022 Spinifex Indigene Mataro Shiraz, Barossa Valley

A blend of 90/10% mataro/shiraz from the Vinehaven and Rocky Valley vineyards. This smells glorious. Uber-pure satsuma plum, blueberry and black cherry fruits cut with hints of exotic spice, créme de cassis, tobacco, purple floral tones, bay leaf, olive tapenade, graphite and earth. The fruit is the star here; perfectly poised and harmonious, it melds with silty-fine tannins, with a red apple skin acidity on the fade out. Superb. Drink 2025 to 2045.

96 points Dave Brookes for Halliday Wine Companion, March 2025

Deep, almost opaque ruby red colour. Blueberry, mulberry, ironstone and boudin noir aromas. Deep and powerful, the core fills with black and blue fruits that are powerful but not overt as ferrous minerality, deep meaty and dark spice tones all fill through and keep it balanced and intriguing. There's no doubting the density here, tannins are built to handle it though. Granular and driving, it carries phenomenal length and a firm dryness at the finish. A wine built for the long haul and will definitely be best with suitable food. Drink 2025 to 2041.

95 points Stuart Knox for The Real Review, January 2025

Spinifex was founded in 2001 by Peter Schell and Magali Gely — he a trained oenologist who has made wine across Burgundy, Provence, the Languedoc and beyond; she from a family with over ten generations of viticulture near Montpellier. Between them they brought a very particular conviction to the Barossa: that the vineyard is everything, and that the winemaker's role is to preserve what the land and the grower have already achieved rather than impose on it. Spinifex built its reputation through long-term relationships with exceptional growers — and those relationships remain the heart of the range. The own vineyards came later: the Rostein in the Eden Valley from 2014, the historic Dominion near Vine Vale from 2018. The négociant model has never been a compromise at Spinifex any more than it is for many of the great names of Burgundy. What matters is the land, and the honesty with which you listen to it.

The Indigene blend varies with the vintage but is always centred on old-vine Mataro and Shiraz. In 2022 Mataro takes a commanding 90% of the blend, drawn from the Vinehaven vineyard planted in 1926, with old-vine Shiraz from Rock Valley adding a touch of polish to what is, at its heart, a Mataro wine. Both sites are dry-grown, hand-pruned and hand-picked with minimal inputs. Destemmed and fermented separately in small stainless-steel vessels for 14 days before pressing, one parcel to a seasoned 900-litre foudre, the other to a new 500-litre puncheon. The wines rested for twenty-two months before blending and bottling.

Mataro is not a shy variety and the 2022 makes no attempt to pretend otherwise. Carbide, wood smoke, satsuma plum, blackberry and crème de cassis on the nose with dried rosemary, cardamom, bay leaf, olive tapenade, graphite and ink threading through — complex, brooding and genuinely beautiful. The palate is dense and powerfully driven with a streak of plum-skin acidity keeping everything taut, fine silty tannins and a finish of extraordinary length.

Raw Barossa power with the composure to match. This needs food from the mountainous hinterlands of Languedoc and Catalunya: cassoulet with duck confit and Toulouse sausage; a slow-braised wild boar with juniper, thyme and red wine; or a Catalan-style lamb shoulder with dried peppers and black olives cooked until it falls apart. The wine's density, spice and driving tannins will handle anything that's been in the pot since morning.

Drink now through 2045.