Australia: Gatt Wines

From winetitles.com.au

Owner Ray Gatt and his team - headed up by winemaker David Norman and vineyard guru Gil Rogers - are based in famous wine town Tanunda, South Australia; and the vineyards are found in the Eden and Barossa Valleys. Ray's 'High Eden' vines lie at around 500 metres altitude, one of the highest sites in the area I'm told, which suits Riesling well and nurtures a cooler climate style of Shiraz. On the red front, I focused on his Shirazes and Cabs at this particular tasting (in Dublin), as part of a themed approach to hundreds of bottles lined up; but Gatt does also make Grenache and Sangiovese sourced from their Barossa plantings, as well as new additions Tempranillo and Nebbiolo. The 2007s and 2008s featured below are probably their first vintage releases by the way: he bought Eden Springs vineyard in 2006 (established in 1972). Some of these wines are quite pricey, but Ray doesn't produce very much of certain old vine batches. I've indicated cellar door prices in Aus dollars: GBP retail would be about half this roughly, and € in Ireland about two-thirds. More @ www.gattwines.com (but not much: follow the link under the photo to a good article on Wine Titles' site).

Accent Pinot Gris 2014 Eden Valley (13.5% abv) - Honeyed juicy and spicy, lightly 'balsamic' too, attractive style with crisp-ish vs fatter texture. A$20
Accent Viognier 2014 Barossa Valley (13%) - Enticing pure peachy style, quite soft and juicy with a touch of bite and nice 'sweet' fruit. A$20
High Eden Riesling 2014 (11.5%) - Light and delicate with juicy citrus and zingy 'chalky' mouth-feel, crisp length although soft too. A$25
High Eden Sparkling Shiraz 2007 - Drier than many in this quirky style, showing savoury developed flavours livened up with fizz, attractive and different. A$25

Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 (14%) - Nice maturing cassis aromas and flavours, tasty sweet/savoury fruit with a little grip still, well-balanced and drinking now but has some power left in it. A$55
High Eden Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 - Leafy cassis notes leading to chunkier richer ripe berry fruit vs a touch of oak, nicely balanced though with rounded mouth-feel vs light grip and reasonably subtle overall. A$55

High Eden Shiraz 2009 (13.5%) - Delicious peppery herby black cherry nose, maturing savoury flavours too vs minty tones and lush dark fruit with a bit of grip on its long finish. Very nice. A$55
Barossa Shiraz 2008 - Meaty vs sweet fruit nose, tasty mature savoury notes vs dark cherry and spice, lingering touch of tannin; lovely balance though. A$55
Old Vine Barossa Shiraz 2010 - Fair amount of choco oak to start vs very rich dark and peppery fruit, concentrated / extracted, quite oaky still vs good depth and power, closes up on the finish. Time will tell... A$100