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Dandelion Vineyards

2023

‘Menagerie of the Barossa’

Grenache - Shiraz - Mataró   |   Barossa Valley - Australia
Shelf Talker Spec Sheet Wine Label Bottle Image

About

At the end of Zar & Elena’s old vine garden path there is a historic ‘Menagerie’ of three grape varieties, adjoining blocks of Grenache, Shiraz and Mataró in Rosedale, just along the Seppeltsfield border, in the western edges of the Barossa Valley. These three grapes have been blended together for much longer than the first vines found their way to Australia, but the Barossa has really become a de facto new-world home for this trinity. The cool night of the Barossa really pull back the reins on the power and intensity that comes with the hot growing days. The ’23 vintage was really one that was defined by elegance.  More than adequate spring rains followed by a long, cool, dry growing season and extremely long hang time with harvest nearly a month later than 2020-2022.

After hand picking selected bunches of the Menagerie field blend in mid-March, Elena let the whole bunches and de-stemmed fruit co-ferment together in open top fermenters with a selected yeast for two weeks, before basket pressing into old French oak barriques. The wine was then matured for a further 12 months in the same oak before being racked where it settled naturally in tank without any fining and bottled without filtration and a nominal sulfur addition.

Stats

  • Grapes: 62% Grenache - 21% Shiraz - 17% Mataró
  • Vineyard: Adjoining blocks from a vineyard off Seppeltsfield road in Rosedale
  • Vine Age: 26-years-old (Shiraz) - 20-years old (Grenache & Mataró)
  • Soil Type: Hard red clay over limestone & ironstone
  • Viticulture: Conventional
  • Fermentation: Inoculated – stainless-steel (85% de-stemmed & 15% whole-cluster)
  • Skin Contact: 15 days
  • Aging: 12 months in seasoned French barriques
  • Alcohol: 14%
  • pH: 3.52
  • Total Acidity: 5.26 g/L
  • Total SO2: 110 ppm
  • Total Production: 500 cases
  • UPC: 9342160000522
  • SRP: $24.99

Tasting Note

Mild-purple to purple-red. A bouquet of garden roses mixed with a roadside of dusty blackberry and early season raspberries leap from the glass.  Deeper aromas away of wet earth, fresh and dried French herbs; fennel and cedar, brightened by a minty lift. A lesson in grip and texture… Peppercorns atop plummy, dark berry fruit flavors and cherry pith and a pastis/aniseed kick. This is a playful mouthful of red wine as much as it is a fully, quietly qualified one. Drinking it is a study in the dialectic.

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Producer


Dandelion Vineyards

Region


Barossa Valley

Country


Australia

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