Do you remember the time when chardonnays were big, pinot noir was kinda big and shiraz was huge? I know I do, and good times they were to the 1990’s; all wine tasted really, really great and we manged to find some deeper, poetic meaning in even the crappiest of bottles. These were my teenage years and the earliest of 20’s, when one’s senses absorbed everything, spinning only superlatives and positives, on just about everything.
As I age, I try to avoid cynicism, comparing myself to others, judgmentalism and losing perspective. How often do you hear about the “crazy” times we live in? When I hear this, I think that maybe the person has lost all perspective?
Times have never been so good, just look out the window, and if you think the times are out of joint, just pick up a copy of Robert Conquest’s The Great Terror, Daniel Mendelsohn’s The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million and countless other tomes. If you’ve read this far, you’ll know that I’m pontificating about wine, the world’s most important subject. Perspective indeed…
When I first tasted the wines of J & S Fielke, I put them in the same category as Steve Crawford’s label, Frederick Stevenson. There is a degree of drinkability that belies the wine’s genuine seriousness and vinous intent. But what I loved most, is their ability to please so many different kinds of drinkers. Bright, with oodles of fruit, the wines are weighty, but heavy, densely flavoured, without being dense. There is a certain contemporariness, yet they never forget their cultural roots of intense flavours, or the hot southern sun, ripening their grapes.
The 2024 shiraz for instance, from Inwell’s very old McLaren Vale vineyard. is utterly typical of the region, yet thoroughly modern. Intensely perfumed, with overt fruitiness and soy, silk and Asian spice notes, due to the use of 100% whole bunches. They are interesting and delicious, old school in their way, yet thoroughly modern. In other words, they are wines for everyone.
The 2022 was, is amazing, the 2023 is even better. Stylistically the same, but with greater precision and mid palate weight. It’s rich, but in no way heavy, fleshy and juicy. Very complex, with citrus and stone fruits, white flowers, white chocolate, blood orange, buttered toast with honey, macadamia and a salty, sea tone. It’s a chardonnay with immense personality and flavour, a nod to the richer styles of the 1990’s, but without the same level of new oak, in this case 40%. Savoury, nutty with a pinch of texture, so i’m guessing the barrels were not topped completely. It’s so delicious, and I would love to see this with some bottle age.
Full flavoured, pure and lucid, a pinot noir of detail and juxtaposition. All the Fielke wines have an extra dimension, so they don’t fit neatly into established, stylistic conceptions. Very aromatic, with lavender, violets, Asian spices, earthy notes and a compote of tangy red and hedge fruits. Medium bodied, on the one hand angular and edgy, yet silky and sappy. Such a fine wine, intense delicacy, a sort of Volnay presence, emphasising that lightness has its own kind of power. Caressing and long, the finish a fine web of tannin, pure fruit and mineral freshness. A wine of terrific harmony and as the old hands would say, a ‘sleeper’ of the vintage. Destined for a very long life.
From grapes off Inkwell’s organic vineyard in Tatachilla, McLaren Vale and their entry for the 2024 Hacking The Future of Shiraz Project. This is such a McLaren Vale expression, full of brambly fruits, blueberry and chocolate. Carbonically macerated for 14 days prior to a natural fermentation and hand plunged daily for a month. Elevage took place for only 9 months, in used French oak, so there is a heck of a lot of vibrancy, colour, tannin and freshness. Never thought you’d see those descriptors in the same sentence, eh? Silky, all enveloping, the flavours are super intense, with tertiary notes of soy and preserved vine leaves. Luminous color, the flavours on steroids and the tannins are silky, slippery and mineral. A phenomenal wine of classicism and newness, very much of its place, yet with incredibly adept winemaking. Like all their wines, ridiculous value for money.
