Soul Growers Defiant Mataro 2009 (Barossa Valley, SA)
15%, Cork, $50
Source: Sample
www.soulgrowers.com

Heavy bottle, serious price-tag, wonderfully dense and unapologetic Mataro. That’s the drift here.

Drawn from ancient old vines, the style savoury, warm, alcoholic, typically Mataro reductive, a little leathery, perhaps a little dried at the edges, hearty, warm and utterly satisfying. A cool night and lamb shanks wine, of blackness and roaring fires and dark chocolate. A wine derived from rough hands, open fermenters and tiny, intense, black grapes on twisted old vines.

I drank this (drank, not tasted) out of a thermos at the AFL on a rainy night last weekend and then brought the remnants home to look at again over the next few days. It didn’t budge much. Still uncompromising in its Mataro gruffness, still dry, still a little boozy, still wonderfully effortless in its Barossa-ness and its Barossa Mataro-ness.

Yes please. More. Could it get better? Perhaps a little less warm, but otherwise, don’t fuck with it.

Drink: 2013-2023+
Score: 18.5/20 94/100
Would I buy it? Yes. The 2010 is current release and may be even better again.