https://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/vanguardists-edgy-wines-riesling-chardonnay-grenache/news-story/81775024d0d6e4551e0add0275b5a83c (Subscription maybe required)
]]>Reviewed by Julia Harding MW November 13, 2017
Vanguardist Wines "MVG” Grenache 2016 Blewitt Springs McLaren Vale, SA
17/20 "25% stems, 6-10 months on skins. Old oak. Bright cherry red. Juicy fruit layering over lovely texture. Tannins are fine, compact and starting to resolve – they bring not only texture but freshness. The finish is dry and chewy with delicious sour red fruit intensity. Very good. (JH) 13.8% Drink 2017-2026"
Vanguardist Wines "CVR” Riesling 2016 Clare Valley, SA
17/20 "Barrel fermented but mostly old, various sizes. An interesting aroma that is fresh and citrusy but relatively restrained. A definite grip on the palate, perhaps not quite bone dry but that grip enhances the freshness and length. Distinctive style. Crisp and also quite compact. Needs time. (JH)
Drink 2017 - 2026"
By Jamie Goode
3rd October, 2017
I was really pleased to try these wines (thanks to Christina Rasmussen for getting these samples to me). They’re from a relatively new project, Vanguardist, which is a collaboration between three people, Alexandra Maurisset, Edouard Maurisset-Latour and Michael Corbett. Corbett is the winemaker, and is based in the Clare Valley, but he’s a Kiwi: the three originally met and hatched their plans in 2012 in Hawke’s Bay. Production is small: 150 cases in the debut vintage of 2014 has grown to 800 in 2016, and there are plans for limited growth in the future. The wines are really lovely.
This is what they say:
In an industry that is awash with overly commercialised wines produced by corporates who take up all the elbow room, shout noisily across the table and flood the market with mass produced wine that are often guised as ‘boutique wines’, we wish to make a humble stand and be vanguardist in our methods. V is a nod to the small guys looking to keep it real, forever striving to unlock the imagination and inspire those with curious palates.
There are two tiers to the range: there are the more simple, but smashable C’est Facile wines, and then the top, wax-sealed bottles with initials as their names.
"C’est Facile" Riesling 2016 Clare Valley, Australia
11.3% alcohol. 80% stainless steel and 20% barriques. This is really pure, lemony and dry with a lovely delicacy. There’s some mineral character here, with an almost spicy undercurrent to the citrus fruits. Lovely detailed finish. 92/100
Vanguardist Wines CVR 2016 Clare Valley, Australia
11.7% alcohol. 100% Riesling. One third was fermented in an open top fermenter, like a red wine, and then basket pressed. Full yellow colour with a slight haziness. Lovely fresh, mineral, spicy citrus fruits dominate. It’s dry and really textural with a hint of green tea and a bit of tannin hiding under the fruit. A hint of apple and wax, but the driving force is a lovely lemony purity. Nicely complex and long. 94/100
"C’est Facile" Grenache 2016 McLaren Vale, Australia
13.8% alcohol. 25% whole bunch, wild ferment, aged in old barrels. There’s a real freshness to this wine with bright, linear black cherry and blackberry fruit, plus hints of sappy greenness, fine spices and ginger. It’s superbly drinkable, with silky texture and a fresh, pure personality. Elegant and quite Pinot Noir-like, with focused fruit but also a hint of warmth, and just enough structure and acidity to keep things well balanced. A lovely wine. 93/100
Vanguardist MVG 2016 McLaren Vale, Australia
13.7% alcohol. 100% Grenache from old, dry grown bush vines in the high sands of the Blewitt Springs. Initially a tiny bit stinky, this settles down to reveal a beguiling aroma of sweet cherry fruit with fine spices and a hint of citrus. The palate has lovely concentration, but this never gets in the way of the beautiful poise to the spicy, slightly grippy, textured cherry and strawberry fruit, with some fine waxy, sappy hints. There’s fruit here, and some of the fruit characters are quite ripe, but there’s also freshness and a strongly savoury, spicy dimension. There’s earth, leather and herbs as well as liqueur-like red fruits. Lots of potential for development here, too. 94/100
http://www.wineanorak.com/wineblog/riesling/the-amazing-vanguardist-wines-from-south-australia
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Reviewed by Gary Walsh
August 16, 2017
95 PTS
"Grapes sourced from 47 year old dry-grown bush vines at the high part of Blewitt Springs. No additions other than a little sulphur. Michael, the winemaker, has a very nice beard and he puts me in mind of a viking. 150 dozen produced.
Raspberry, plenty of spice, a musk and rose perfume, and maybe some just wet earthiness in the background. Medium bodied, layers of flavour and spice – almost an Indian exotica here – thick and pleasantly chalky tannin, well settled acidity, and all that spice, earth and fresh raspberry closing out a very long finish. Personality plus. It tastes good, and just as importantly, it feels good. Almost Italianate."
http://www.winefront.com.au/vanguardist-wines-mvg-grenache-2016/
(subscription required)
By Gary Walsh
17 August 2017
90 PTS
"Hand-picked from a NE ridge of the Clare Valley with 40% spending six weeks on skins, the balance whole bunch basket pressed to old oak. No fining. No filtration. As an aside, I scored this wine 94 points last year in a big blind tasting of 2016 Clare Valley Riesling.
Chamomile and honey, perhaps some ginger, more to apple than citrus, some aniseed. Medium weight, a slight cider vinegar tang, but not untoward, a dusting of peppery tannin, turning more to lime and lemon as it closes, fairly softly. Lots of interest, and a nice change of pace from the same old."15 AUGUST 2017, written by Nick Ryan.
Forget the misconceptions – and that darkened bottle of pinot – in favour of a grape having its moment in the sun.
When you write about booze for a living, people treat you like a wine guide turned flesh. And the one bit of advice I’m asked more than any other is this: “What’s the best pinot noir under $50?” My answer is always the same: “Grenache.”One of the most widely planted grape varieties in the world, grenache has been rooted in Australian soil since our earliest winemaking days and has been woefully underappreciated for too many years. But that’s changing.
This is a golden age of grenache, a blessed time when insightful and progressive winemakers are giving it the respect it deserves.
It’s the variety’s propensity for perfume and juicy suppleness that invites comparisons with pinot noir, but the difference is, grenache can thrive in places where pinot would simply lose its shit.
In sun-drenched Spain they call it garnacha and it’s the most planted variety in the country. It prospers through southern France, in places like Languedoc-Roussillon and the bottom half of the Rhône Valley, and is at the heart of one of the world’s great appellations, Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
Here in Australia, just like unreliable energy supply and the ability to correctly pronounce words like ‘dance’ and ‘chance’, truly great grenache is a peculiarly South Australian thing.
While there are small pockets of grenache in places like Heathcote in Victoria, the overwhelming majority of plantings are in South Australian soil – and of those, the greatest number are found in urban Adelaide’s viticultural bookends, the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale.
Both regions have a significant number of old grenache vineyards, a legacy of the early days of Australian wine when varieties useful in the production of fortified wines were favoured. Where once those vines pumped out large crops of super-ripe fruit to make port, now they’re trained for much lower yields, giving up just a few bunches of concentrated and deeply flavoured grapes.
In smart winemaking hands, this fruit produces wines with seductive perfumes, lively textures and dangerous drinkability. Now, it’s time to dodge the pinot aisle and try for yourself.
Vanguardist Grenache 2016 ($50)
The bearded, barrel-chested Michael Corbett fell in love with grenache while working in southern France, and his ardour now drives him to produce this multi-layered, beautifully balanced and gently spiced stunner from old vines at Blewitt Springs in McLaren Vale. Halfway through the first glass, you’ll begin to realise where this buzz about grenache is coming from. A star on the rise.
http://www.gq.com.au/lifestyle/food+wine/grenache+is+the+new+pinot+noir,51737
]]>By Daniel Whyntie,
February 2017 – Issue 637, www.winetitles.com.au
Vanguardist is an eccentric example of what a multinational wine business can look like in the globalized economy. With an eye on a distinct premium market, winemaker Michael John Corbett moved from New Zealand to Australia to start a wine business with two friends living in France. Daniel Whyntie reports.
Image courtesy of Daniel Purvis
WHAT STARTED as a collaborative project between three friends shows how a strong vision can grow a company; even when its members are in different countries. The group slowly came to a realisation, along many late nights in the sleepy town of Hawkes Bay, that they held the same ideals about wine.
By Tim White, The Australian Financial Review
November 16, 2016
94 PTS
"This smells a bit wild and uncontrolled, in a really exciting way. Mixed pulpy rind and yellow stonefruit kernel fruit; there's a woody, cedar-spicy note too. Has a plumpness and viscosity in the mouth, with grapefruit nectarine tanginess. Complex acid structure that breaks beautifully at the back of the palate, where it gets meally-nutty, tight and bitter. Yum and fun."
Campbell Mattinson
October 17, 2016
93/100 Points
"25% whole bunch, delicate handling, old oak, gravity racked and bottled.” Only 250 dozen. From the winery’s website: “A small amount of destemmed and hand plunged fruit was used, as well as an extended maceration portion that spent 5 months on skins.” Bottled unfined and unfiltered.
Excellent grenache. Not thick or in any way overdone. Ripe and expressive yet fine-boned; and that’s the wine’s key. Shot with spice, red cherry, redcurrant and mineral. Smoke-infused in a subtle/integrated way. Gamey tannin complements and enhances the picture. As delicious as it is impressive."
By Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
08 April 2016.
90 PTS
Raised in barrels rather than stainless steel. Unfined. Unfiltered. 150 dozen made.
"Not your usual Clare Valley Riesling, that’s for sure, which is no bad thing either. Pie apple, whiff of chamomile tea, lime, slight yeast and briny character. It’s smooth in the mouth, almost soft and silky, with the apple flavour dominating, but kind of savoury with it too. Gentle talcum powder texture, with limey acidity and nutty flavours pushing through on the finish. Interesting wine, though likely more interesting if they really pushed the boat out and held on skins for a good long while. Though maybe that’s just me."
http://www.winefront.com.au/vanguardist-wines-cvr-riesling-2015/
]]>Spends 35 days on skins (25% of it, anyway), old oak and all that. Cork a daft choice for closure, but anyway.
"Very good drinking early, which you can’t often say of some more traditional Hunter Semillon. Spice, honey, quince and citrus, some funky cheesy flavours. It’s fleshy and chalky, toast and honey, something like a mandarin flavour and acidity, and a smooth spicy finish, tinged with lime. Like this a lot." 92 Points
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