Paralian’s releases have, so far, put them right up there with South Australia’s best producers and a level of value that is simply astonishing.
2022 is a great year for McLaren Vale, being cool, long and with slightly reduced yields. The reds are intense, with deep fleshy cores of fruit, ripe tannins and elevated freshness. Certainly a vintage offering balance, harmony and power. 2023 vintage in the Adelaide Hills was the latest since the 1990’s. Low yields, excellent acidity and deep volumes of fruit will, I think, ensure that 2023 is one of their greatest.
There is a Paralian ‘house style’, evident when tasting the wines together. Rich dark fruits, tertiary flavours of flowers and milk chocolate and savoury notes of mixed herbs, dry and sweet spice, black olive and licorice root. Incredibly bright with a lovely tension between sweet and savoury, plush, fleshed out middle palates with long grainy/sandy/velvet/pumice like tannins. They are unmistakably McLaren Vale, with a level of refinement matched possibly, but not bettered.
The Chardonnay is a continuum of this style. The fruit is sourced from the Boyer Ridge Vineyard. Whilst retaining the lovely tense acid line of the Adelaide Hills, there is an abundance of flesh and plump extract to harmonise the wine’s naturally immense structure.
Sometimes the world brings forth wines that are so delicious and although not cheap, at a price that beggars belief. Every single bottle of Paralian I have tried, many of them on multiple occasions, fits this mould.
Paralian Boyer Ridge Vineyard Chardonnay 2023
From a great vintage, perhaps the greatest in recent memory. And it shows. There’s an incredible lift of green mango, pawpaw, yellow and white peach, brioche, white flowers and Jersey cream. Aged in 500L French oak, 20% new, weekly lees stirring and 30% malolactic. Terrific winemaking, the fruit’s so bright, the mid plate fleshy and deep and the acid line perfectly cut. Very intense and lively, tightly coiled; indeed give this time, preferably, a lot of it. Salty and mineral, with grapefruit, cumquat and variations of lime. Time will see greater flesh and density and it wouldn’t surprise me to see this bright as a button two decades hence. Waters Wine Co
Single Vineyard Chardonnay, fruit sourced from ‘Bowyer Ridge Vineyard’, Adelaide Hills grown by the Rosback family.
Irrigated vines, on mica schist, North/South aspect 480-495m altitude. Sustainable Winegrowing Australia Certified Vineyard
After both working in Burgundy now 14yrs ago, we have a real passion for Chardonnay and wanted to embark on making a single vineyard wine from the Adelaide Hills. After much negotiation, we were very lucky to be able to access some fruit from the Bowyer Ridge Vineyard.
Hand-picked fruit, whole bunch pressed, the free run only was drained and fermented in French oak barrels – 18% new, majority in larger 500L puncheons. 100% wild ferment, left on lees in barrel for partial malolactic fermentation while stirring regularly to build texture.
A very tight expression of Bowyer Ridge, green almond, white peach, touch of green melon and seaspray. This is a sleeper… the most tightly wound we have seen since working with the fruit from 2019. The palates volume of primary fruit builds over time and is lengthened by intense grapefruit acidity. Winemaker’s Notes
Paralian Blewitt Springs Grenache Shiraz 2022
Usually my favourite wine in the range and one for those in any doubt about the efficacy of blends. A 60/40 blend of Grenache and Shiraz. Essentially a barrel selection of the juiciest and brightest fruit for early drinking, but this will nevertheless cruise through 10 years and plenty more. Expressive, so McLaren Vale with white chocolate, blueberry, sweet red fruits, potpourri and sweet spice. Fleshy, yet still with a serious savoury edge of bay leaf and black olive tapenade. Fulsome and delicious the tannins ever-present in lovely contrast to the rich vibrancy of fruit. Long, cashmere tannins. Waters Wine Co
Dense purple in the glass. Blueberry, white pepper, dark slate and violets on the nose. Enters the palate with an explosion of purple fruits and exotic spices: musk, violets, cola, and anise all meld with aplomb and class whilst sandy tannins bring tension and focus to the flow. Great length and precision. It’s an impressive wine in its youth and will no doubt open further in time. 96 Points, Stuart Knox, The Real Review
A Grenache Shiraz blend comprising 60% Marmont Vineyard Grenache, 40% Springs Hill Vineyard Shiraz. A combination of varieties that is quintessentially McLaren Vale, an homage to past employers who have proudly championed blends of Grenache and Shiraz for decades.
A barrel selected blend of our two single vineyard wines. The Grenache and Shiraz components were made separately and come blending for this wine we were looking for a wine that offered generosity, freshness of the varieties but also a drive of subtle tannin; a natural life line of preservation.
Darker expression from the 2022 vintage with green and black pepper/Chinese spice and a juicy raspberry core from the Grenache. There’s a touch of road tar and anise leading to darker primary fruit aromas. Quite a savoury fruit profile through the palate with a lovely chisel of medium weight tannins. A tighter version of the Grenache Shiraz highlighting the cooler growing season. Winemaker’s Notes
Paralian Marmont Vineyard Grenache 2022
Sumptuous grenache. Just because it’s grown on sand doesn’t mean it has to be light, or pretty, or boney, or cliche of all cliches, have sandy tannins. It is pretty and the tannins are ‘pumicey’ and grainy, but this Paralian grenache always has power, weight, density and a savouriness, harmonising the sweet fruit. The fruit is sweet, mostly dark fruits like blackberry, mulberry, blueberry and currant with flashes of raspberry. Herbal notes, with bay leaf, iodine, licorice root and mixed Middle Eastern spice. Very powerful indeed, yet there is prettiness and a sense of ethereal delicacy which will become more apparent with time in bottle. Aged for 10 months in an old 2500L French oak foudre, formally of Tyrrells. This is a serious grenache, I mean really serious, the whole bunch component drawing out the tannins, which are significant after spending almost 3 weeks on skins. Paralian’s tannins are a signature – pumice/grainy/chalky and you can smell and taste as much as feel. Refined opulence. Waters Wine Co
Single vineyard Grenache, fruit sourced from ‘The Marmont Vineyard’ Blewitt Springs, McLaren Vale grown by the Cross family.
Hand-picked fruit, wild-fermented in a 133-year-old wax lined concrete open fermenter, 19% whole bunch, remainder of fruit destemmed whole berry on top. Gentle cap management with daily hand plunges with the occasional pump over during the peak of ferment over a period of 16-days on skins. Whole bunches were hand squeezed at zero Baume to release the beautiful aromatic carbonic ferment characters back into the wine. Wine was matured on lees for 10 months in a 16 year old 2600L French oak foudre.
Pure high tone ripe raspberry fruits with Thai basil and blueberry. There’s the site specific cinnamon bark & African spice rack notes but the depth and darkness of fruits is more profound this year. Acidity punctuates a fresh drive of primary fruits with great depth and a lovely talcy tannin profile tucks this all in. One of the purest Marmont releases to date. Winemaker’s Notes
Paralian Springs Hill Vineyard Shiraz 2022
“We Love Northern Rhone”, Skye Salter told me when tasting through their wines, and it shows, with notes of Charcuterie and coal dust. Otherwise it’s all McLaren Vale. Deep dark fruits, including blackcurrant, not often found in shiraz. Dark cherry, blackberry, violets, savoury spice, fresh compost, cured meats, pink peppercorn, soy, fennel and cardamon. Rich, medium to full bodied, plush and curvaceous with lovely acid cut, delineating the curves, without putting them into a straight jacket. Mineral, the tannins in lockstep with the fruit and the drive is long, the longest in the range and to my mind unquestionably demonstrates the greatness of shiraz in Australia. 2-3 decades of ageing, easy. What a wine, what a bargain. Waters Wine Co
A lustrous crimson. Fine, detailed and succulent boasting riffs on blueberry, white pepper, lilac, nori and cardamon – so finessed to be almost separable, undone across seams of svelte, sandy tannins. This is a glorious shiraz, with the pulp and verve of berries, clusters and foot-trodden tannins finding a glorious confluence of freshness, lilt and effortless length. Crozes-Hermitage from the Vale. 96 Points, Ned Goodwin MW, Halliday Wine Companion
Extremely refined shiraz, medium-bodied and whetting the palate with refined tannins and Blewitt Springs salinity. Delicious notes of Damson plums, violets, cloves and pepper. The structure is taut and long. This is an excellent wine of a sophisticated order. Among the better wines tastes in recent memory. Drink or hold. Screw cap. 96 Points, Ned Goodwin MW, JamesSuckling.com
Paralian Springs Hill Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2022
This may seem like an outlier in the range, but it isn’t. Cabernet Sauvignon is indeed a classic varietal of McLaren Vale and the passion project of Charlie Seppelt. A love of Claret doesn’t mean an aping or copying of Bordeaux and Paralian’s example is simply the best out of the region and of a style that is unique to South Australia. Beautiful aromatics of blueberry, blackcurrant, mint, bay leaf and violets. Rich and plush, full of curve and vigour, with lovely bass notes. Dark fruits, dark chocolate, iodine, compost, tobacco. black olive and cardamon with rich tannins of cashmere and chalk. It’s cabernet alright, but not claret; with a seductive fleshy core of fruit, mineral spices and corseting acid line. One of my favourite wines of 2024. Waters Wine Co
Single Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, fruit sourced from ‘Springs Hill Vineyard’, Blewitt Springs, McLaren Vale grown by the Whaite family.
Hand-picked, fully destemmed and crushed cold to a wax lined, 134yr concrete open fermenter. Mixed once daily until indigenous ferment commenced then two pump overs a day until dryness. One pump over a day until we were happy the tannins were where we wanted them. Two weeks on skins, pressed to tank for sugar dryness, then racked to a mix of barriques, hogsheads and puncheons, 23% new oak for 11 months. One rack and return off gross lees post malo.
Violets and bay leaf, blueberry, cedar, blackcurrants with HB pencil. Tightly framed, lithe and intense aromatics, a touch of graphite with a classical varietal sheath of aromas. Medium framed palate weight, structure is refined, discreet almost with fresh acidity and lovely tannins that quietly lengthen out the juicy primary fruit. Winemaker’s Notes
