The Return of Indigene & La Maline, Plus Moppa Shiraz and the Inaugural Sol Solice Grenache View the full available range from Spinifex here. “Talk about nailing it. This slots straight into the realms of the glorious. It’s meaty, spicy, jammed with well-ripened fruit and just so well structured; so persistent. Plums and exotic spices, floral lifts, some undergrowth, some game. It feels filigreed; it feels certain. The complexity here, in a silken/seamless context, is right up there.” 95 points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front Drum roll, please. Following a two-vintage hiatus, the crown jewels in the Spinifex portfolio—La Maline and Indigene—are back. After 20 years making wine in the Barossa, Pete’s got a pretty good handle on what’s required from a season to make his top-tier bottlings, and 2021 was a year that delivered in spades. Much like 2018—the last vintage made—2021’s extended growing season and comparatively cool conditions provided fruit with the style, elegance and restraint so vital to the DNA of these two wines. Pete’s ability to make these wines is not only limited by season but also by the vineyards. Fruit for both La Maline and Indigene comes from very old, dry-grown sites that generally yield less than a tonne per acre. So, even if the conditions are perfect, only two or three barrels are made of each. The 2021s are a welcome return, each showcasing Schell’s consummate ability to harness and channel raw Barossa power into wines of sleek charm, perfume and length.Pete Schell is hardwired to search out new things like a magpie, giving rise to a fascinating range of small-batch Barossa and Eden Valley wines. The new Sol Solice Grenache now represents the pinnacle of Spinifex’s Grenache production each year. The inaugural release is a blend of fruit from a share-farmed vineyard in Light Pass in the Barossa Valley and Spinifex’s own Rostein Vineyard in the Eden Valley, which at 490 metres elevation, Pete tells us is the highest Grenache block in South Australia. It’s a blisteringly good release and an exciting first glimpse at a new Spinifex flagship.Finally, the Moppa 2021 Shiraz is as concentrated and intense a release as we have seen, a powerhouse from one of the most unique and characterful sites in the Barossa.It all adds up to a great release from a Barossa treasure, whose wines, in the context of spiralling prices from overseas, just seem to become better value with each year. As Mike Bennie alludes to above, consistency of quality should be celebrated, and with the latest releases from Spinifex, we have the perfect wines to do so.