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Spinifex

Barossa Tamed: The Spinifex Elites – Indigene, La Maline and Moppa
Spinifex
Spinifex’s portfolio is stacked with quality, yet two wines play a particularly significant role in Pete and Magali’s story. Indigene has been a cornerstone of the portfolio since day one, when, in 2001, the pair had the opportunity to source some great old-vine Mataro growing in deep, white sand on the Barossa Valley’s Western Ridge. A year later, we saw the first release of Spinifex’s Shiraz flagship, La Maline, then labelled simply as Shiraz Viognier. Both labels helped redefine the style of wine we have come to expect from the Barossa Valley and its surrounding foothills. When Campbell Mattinson writes that “few, if any [Barossa producers] have been more important than Spinifex over the past 20 years,” these two wines lit the fire.

It’s unusual for a great producer not to bottle their top wines(s)—both regional benchmarks—every year. Indigene was not made in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020; there was a La Maline in 2015, but it also skipped the three latter years. This is not a case of good vintage vs bad vintage. Rather, when the shoe fits. The essence of the year must fit the orchestration of these unique wines like a glove—a symphony of complexity, contours, charm and elegance. Sometimes, you are judged on the wines you don’t make as much as those you do. Many of the sites Pete works with are marginal, meaning they don’t deliver transcendent fruit year in and year out. So, when it all comes together in vintages like 2022, then the game is on.

2022 was a pretty polite vintage,” says Schell. Devoid of heat spikes or heavy rain events marked by cool, unhurried conditions, it played right into this winemaker’s gnarled hands. “Nice warm days and cool nights, that’s how I like it,” he told us. “I’ll take that over hot and fast any day.” The beauty of these wines is that they are not dense or forceful; they are full-flavoured, fresh and supple wines that place charm and engaging beauty above power and big structure. Pete Schell blends wine like Matisse blended colour. 

Schell’s Mataro crop was near-perfect this year. Hence, it headlines Indigene, while La Maline once again comprises the crown jewels of Spinifex’s Shiraz crop. Finally, the Moppa Shiraz, from one of the most unique and characterful sites in the Barossa, showcases Schell’s flawless ability to harness and channel raw Barossa power into wines of sleek charm, perfume and length. Benchmark Barossa.

The Wines

Spinifex Indigene 2022

Spinifex Indigene 2022

Indigene is based on Barossa’s wonderful resource of old-vine Mataro (aka Mourvèdre) and Shiraz. No two years are the same for Indigene, with the composition depending on fruit quality and vintage conditions. In 2022, Mataro takes centre stage, accounting for a whopping 90% of the blend; Pete couldn’t resist the powerful, immaculately balanced profile of the Mataro this year and added Shiraz for a touch of polish.

The fruit hails from two respected vineyards in the Barossa Valley, Vinehaven and Rock Valley, planted in 1926 (Mataro) and 1996 (Shiraz), respectively. No-frills farming reigns at both sites―picking and pruning are done by hand, vines are predominantly dry-grown and inputs are minimal. Both parcels were destemmed and fermented in small stainless-steel tanks. After 14 days, the wine was pressed to one seasoned 900-litre foudre and one new 500-litre puncheon. After 22 months, the wines were blended and bottled. 

2022 was clearly a defining year for this old-vine fruit. It’s a beautifully complex Indigine bursting with broody, juicy berry fruits, earthy depth, a rumbling mineral core, woodsy spice and black tea lift. Tight, stony tannins and driving fresh-berry acidity complement the alluring depth and spice-laden finish. Gorgeously raw Barossa power in a neat, delicious package. 

Spinifex Indigene 2022
Spinifex La Maline 2022

Spinifex La Maline 2022

La Maline is Spinifex’s purest and most finely structured expression of Barossa/Eden Shiraz. As with the 2021, the extended growing season and comparatively cool conditions in 2022 provided fruit with the style, elegance and restraint so vital to this great wine’s DNA. This is a roughly equal split between Pete and Magali’s own Rostein Vineyard in Eden Valley and Materne Vineyard in Moppa in the Barossa Valley.

Rostein was planted in the 1950s and sits high in the valley at close to 500 metres. Materne was planted in the 1920s. Like Rostein, this vineyard is organically dry farmed by hand. The fruit fermented with indigenous yeasts in small, open-top stainless-steel tanks over 12 to 35 days. Pete added a bucket of Viognier halfway through the ferment to lend lift and complexity to the wine. Maturation was in French oak barriques and 700-litre barrels (approximately 35% new) on light lees for 22 months before blending and bottling.

This is killer Shiraz. Highly aromatic and savoury, its muscular frame is underscored by a sense of agility and lifted perfume. Dark blue fruits, warm brown spice and earthy notes float like a butterfly, while the svelte structure, stylish power and sweetly enveloping close stings like a bee. It’s all class.

Spinifex La Maline 2022
Spinifex Moppa Shiraz 2022

Spinifex Moppa Shiraz 2022

This highland vineyard in the northwest of the Barossa Valley has been producing exceptional Shiraz, Grenache and Mataro for Spinifex since 2005. Although the exact age of the vineyard is unknown, it is thought to be at least 80 years old. For the last 40 years, it has been managed organically by the grower who grew up on the block and clearly has the utmost respect for his vines.

Again, Pete Schell’s mastery of balance is on full display here. How does he do it? Tamed Barossa power is countered by pitch-perfect weight, refined structure and acidity and a lingering, flavour-drenched finish. Some 30% bunches add to the attractive spice, and long aging in French puncheons and barriques has given long, pliant tannins to frame the fantastic quality of pure, juicy black fruit. This is stellar stuff from Spinifex—modern Barossa at its very finest.

Spinifex Moppa Shiraz 2022

“The Barossa Valley has many different strengths and, of course, scores of fine producers but few, if any, have been more important than Spinifex over the past 20 years. The wines here are both bold and true to their origin but most importantly they bring an extra degree of earthen complexity to the table, along with sweet spice notes, along oftentimes with overt floral overtones. This is the modern Barossa, made true, made well.” Campbell Mattinson, Halliday Wine Companion Top 100 Wineries 2023



“Pete and his partner Magali Gely operate what I think is the best new-wave of small-scale Barossa wine companies to emerge at the beginning of the 21st century… These weren’t big, blockbuster, showy wines designed to impress. They were wines that managed to take the best of the Barossa’s sometimes forgotten varietal traditions and fuse them onto a very European flavour sensibility.” Max Allen, The Future Makers



“In the cornucopia of avant garde producers, sometimes it’s great to look back at those who were there at the genesis, and revel in their consistency and continuation at a high level.” Mike Bennie, The Wine Front

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