Mourvèdre calls the shots in the 2024 rosé to the tune of 90% of the blend. Vermentino plays a key cameo to bring racy freshness, while Cinsault adds a dash of cherry-fruited flesh. Despite the atypically warm conditions, Rob Mann explains the season delivered fruit of “tremendous depth and intensity with balanced, high natural acidity”. He allowed a full five months on lees in seasoned barriques to dial up the vivacity and texture of a wine that promises to keep charting the course of great Aussie rosé.
Most of the fruit is drawn from dry-grown bush vines on Powderbark Vineyard’s ironstone gravel hilltop. With a focus on freshness, the fruit from these vines was picked on the cusp of full maturity. The Mourvèdre was then pressed as bunches using a traditional, ultra-light Champagne cycle along with a small percentage of Vermentino for its freshening acid streak and a splash of flesh-giving Cinsault. The juice was run directly to seasoned French oak barriques and fermented with indigenous yeasts.
With a touch more colour this year, it’s wonderfully aromatic, with high-toned notes of citrus, berries, wet slate, Provençal herbs and a refreshing, inviting tonic lift. The muscle of 2024 is there, apparent in the powerful, complex flavours, silky weight and base notes of wet minerals and iron, earth and salt. Spice and fresh acid cut, too, and it has a long draw. Dimension and detail—this is a class act.
Critic Reviews
95 POINTS
Ken Gargett - Winepilot
The previous vintage was for me, the best Australian Rosé I have yet seen. This one is certainly comparable. Small production, but the finesse, the elegance and the focus, makes this a true classic. From dry-grown bush vines on an ironstone gravel hilltop, located in their Powderbark vineyard in Frankland River, there is also a dollop of Vermentino and Cinsault included, co-fermented, with the wine then spending time in old French oak barrels, for five months on lees. Worth every penny. From the Frankland River region, the colour is a pale if slightly bronzed pink. The nose offers notes of rose petals, spices, florals, pink grapefruit and strawberries. There is such elegance here, with juicy, seabreeze-like acidity, remarkable balance and a long and lingering finish. The palate sees more notes of strawberries and florals emerging. A compelling Rosé that is a must-try at some stage over the next four years.
94 POINTS
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front
“Produced from estate-grown, bush vine mourvèdre. A fine, sleek rosé with tension and elegant tannin profile, innate freshness, a tart report of pleasing, sour cherry, cranberry tang and some fine rosehip tea characters. Succulent and refreshing, lighter weight but with good tension and structure. A serious pink wine on hand.” 94 points, Mike Bennie, The Wine Companion
94 POINTS
Kasia Sobiesiak - The Wine Front
Mourvèdre, such a great rosé grape, right next to Nebbiolo. I feel they carry a lot of savoury and wild, almost meaty characters. None of that bubble-gum stuff.
Plenty of fine detail: orange blossom, raspberry, curd, gentle note of nougat, depth of flavour, dark fruit tones, aftertaste of bramble, blackberry leaf with a bitter edge, meatiness and black pepper, a pomegranate tang. A serious, proud rosé. All class.
94 POINTS
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate
The 2024 Mourvèdre Rosé is lean and spicy in this hot year, and the wine is blessed with detail and spice that elevates beyond the usual standard of rosé we see in the Australian market. It has phenolic structure and shape, depth of flavor and good length to boot, and this vintage somewhat reminds me of rosé Champagne/sparkling wine, with enormous flavor complexity beyond its structural confines. This is very good indeed. 13.2% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
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Tasting Notes
Mourvèdre calls the shots in the 2024 rosé to the tune of 90% of the blend. Vermentino plays a key cameo to bring racy freshness, while Cinsault adds a dash of cherry-fruited flesh. Despite the atypically warm conditions, Rob Mann explains the season delivered fruit of “tremendous depth and intensity with balanced, high natural acidity”. He allowed a full five months on lees in seasoned barriques to dial up the vivacity and texture of a wine that promises to keep charting the course of great Aussie rosé.
Most of the fruit is drawn from dry-grown bush vines on Powderbark Vineyard’s ironstone gravel hilltop. With a focus on freshness, the fruit from these vines was picked on the cusp of full maturity. The Mourvèdre was then pressed as bunches using a traditional, ultra-light Champagne cycle along with a small percentage of Vermentino for its freshening acid streak and a splash of flesh-giving Cinsault. The juice was run directly to seasoned French oak barriques and fermented with indigenous yeasts.
With a touch more colour this year, it’s wonderfully aromatic, with high-toned notes of citrus, berries, wet slate, Provençal herbs and a refreshing, inviting tonic lift. The muscle of 2024 is there, apparent in the powerful, complex flavours, silky weight and base notes of wet minerals and iron, earth and salt. Spice and fresh acid cut, too, and it has a long draw. Dimension and detail—this is a class act.
