The ‘From the North’ Mourvédre is a smoky and aromatically captivating wine that mind bends in the way Mourvèdre never has. ‘From the North’ is an album from Swedish Hardcore band ‘Raised Fist’, and Taras was a former punk rock guitarist found this Mourvedre is a bit ‘punk’ in that it is anti-Barossa in every way (but still Barossa in ways most don’t understand) and it is ‘north’ of his home in the Adelaide Hills – hence ‘From the North.’ The fruit comes from one of the oldest plantings on the planet (planted in 1869), at the foothills of the Eden Valley, and is dry-farmed certified biodynamically, but as Taras once said…’who gives a fuck.’ The pulverized granite and quartz soils are effectively very fine sand and are the foundation for these gnarly vines to dig for nutrients.

The fruit was hand-picked in mid-March, kept fully intact and cold soaked for five days until wild yeast fermentation went off in small fermenters. The top portion of the fermentation was mucked about by Taras with gentle hand plunging and squeezing of the tiny berries. The bottom portion of the ferment was not disturbed and fermented semi-carbonically. After eight days the wine was nearly dry and baset-pressed to old French barriques to finish fermentation and age gracefully. After three months the barrels were blended to tank, settled, and bottled without fining or filtration and just a small 40 ppm sulfur addition.