Winery & Vintage Info
Winemaker Fraser McKinley's Sami-Odi 2018 release of Little Wine #7 which is a Non-Vintage Shiraz, and a guaranteed sellout every release. McKinley's interesting approach to winemaking and viniculture is one to be admired including lunar cycle considerations.
An unvintaged ‘assemblage’ composed of casks from 2017 (43%), 2016 (38%), 2015 (15%) & 2012 (4%). Exclusively sourced from our treasured plots within the Hoffmann’s ‘Dallwitz’ vineyard from vines planted in 1996, 1995, 1960 & the oldest vines planted prior to 1912. 6527 bottles were filled. Label: ‘LW7’ painted 2017
"This is now 26 barrels in its composition as a ‘non vintage’ shiraz, with the last of the 2012 wine (topped up, on its lees for all that time), being included. The blend is 2017, 2016, 2015, 2012. A wine that is definitively creating its own currency. About (hey!) 43% is six month old wine. The 2017 season was unusual, ‘dates to 2016 were similar, picking was similar, veraison was similar…but in the Hoffman records, there isn’t anything that matches the final date of picking for 2017 – it was so, so, so late’, explains Fraser McKinley, ‘Spring of 2016 moving into 2017 was the wettest on record, so that just made huge amounts of growth, and made for such a late harvest’.
The first batches were picked at 12.2 beaume, the following fruit cycle the same numbers came out, and then the next fruit cycle, ‘I said to Hoffy [Adrian Hoffman] jokingly, do we just keep picking each ten days here or what?’. It was strange, indeed. The 2.8 hectares was picked over six weeks… for one variety. Such curiosity and thought in this project. Amazing, really.
This is sublime. Supple, soft, deep in flavour, that feeling of infinite detail in spice, savoury characters, ripe fruit, leafy notes, sage herbal characters, sundry ‘mineral’ feel, and then there’s tannin and acid to hem it all in, firmly, even with a sense of silkiness. It has the perfume of something pretty and yet the athlete’s rippling body. A wine that drags long, fresh, yet drawn into a deep hole of darker, inkier things. It’s one to savour. It’s one to cellar. It’s a benchmark." 96+ Points
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front - Tasted: January 2018, Drink 2018-2030
