Mitolo GAM Shiraz 2009 McLaren Vale Australia

Mitolo GAM Shiraz 2009 from the McLaren Vale in Southern Australia  is a wine I tasted recently, with a deep ruby with a narrow ruby rim, the nose of concentrated red and black berry fruit overlaid with cooked tomatoe, some dried fruit elements and a whiff of medical bandage. On the palate once more the same satisfyingly ripe fruits plus black juicy cherries, concentrated and spicey with a savoury twang - game and beef rolled up together. The tannins were silky ripe, fine etched and added sound structure to the velvet textured wines. This grapes are grown at sea level about 4 km from the moderating ocean (cool afternoons and cold nights) and this leads to the concentrated flavours obvious on nose and palate.An elegant wine with seductive packed in fruit, with the red and black fruits vying for attention and the spice adding yet another layer to this complex big wine.
This wine can be purchased from Slurp at a cost of £24.95.
Score : 91


Mitolo is a family owned winery established in 1999 by Frank Mitolo. His vision is to create individual, handcrafted premium wines built on passion and an uncompromising commitment to quality. Winemaker Ben Glaetzer became a partner in the business in 2001. The fusion of Frank's intimate knowledge of the land and business acumen with Ben's winemaking talent has led to the creation of one of Australia's most exciting wineries.

The G.A.M. Shiraz comes from the Lopresti vineyard, specifically the Chinese Block, which is located in the Willunga district at the southern end of McLaren Vale. The soils are heavy grey loam over sandstone intermixed with black Biscay clay, a hungry earth which naturally controls yield. The climate mirrors that of the Mediterranean, with dry warm days and cool nights resulting in a long, even growing season with little disease pressure. Yield was around 5.75 tonnes per hectare from vines with an average age of 20 years old.

Each parcel of fruit for G.A.M. was fermented on the skins for ten days at cool and warm temperatures. The lower temperature helped make the finished wine more approachable and the higher temperature gave more structure. The wine underwent partial barrel fermentation followed by natural malolactic fermentation before racking. It was aged aged in fine grained oak predominantly hogsheads (70% new being a blend of 80% French and 20% French coopered American oak, plus 30% being one and two year old French/American oak) for 18 months.

McLaren Vale is one of South Australia's oldest and most picturesque regions, nestled between the Mount Lofty Ranges and the white, sandy beaches of the Gulf of St Vincent. It has rolling vineyards, a rugged coastline and a charming collective of villages including Willunga, Clarendon, Kangarilla, Sellicks, Port Willunga, McLaren Flat and the township of McLaren Vale.

There is substantial climatic variation throughout McLaren Vale, due to varying exposure to the cooling influence of the nearby ocean. There are also significant changes in altitude as the region merges with the Adelaide Hills to the East and the Fleurieu Peninsula to the South.  Summer rainfall is low, and supplementary irrigation is considered essential. Site selection and the marriage of site to variety are all-important; Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay all do very well in the appropriate location and with the wide variety of soils  - red-brown sandy loams, grey-brown loamy sands with yellow clay subsoils interspersed with lime, distinctly sandy soils and patches of red or black friable loams are all to be found and again the grape to soil mix is all important.