Sami-Odi - Little Wine #10 Syrah - 0

Hello. Drum roll… most on the mailing list for these wines, or, indeed, able to use the internet, will know it is a blend of 2020 (51%), 2019 (31%), 2018 (3%), 2017 (8%), 2016 (5%) and 2015 (2%). Winemaker and grape grower Fraser McKinley says, “theres always a vintage characteristic to these wines despite the blending. We talked about 2019 that made powerful and grunty wines, that stood out in the #9 for me, the 2020 season was even lower yielding and was set to be higher harvest, then we got this brutal day during flowering, it was 42 degree day, and was so windy from the north, and that took off almost two thirds of the crop. I think it was last 2014 that Adrian Hoffman called me, I am always calling him, but the morning after this incident he called, and I just knew things weren’t going to be right”. Fraser elaborates on the story of the season, “we had bunches that were at nine grams a bunch, twelve grams a bunch, we weren’t going to get to a kilo a plant for the most part. This means the 2020 wines are a lot of dry matter, skins and stem, the wines look super interesting as young wines, not pulpy and jovial and fun, instantly dark, regardless of extraction in a winery, and will have a fair amount of tannin and structural components. This little wine #10 has a similar percent of the young component, the 2020 material, which offers a low yielding structural side, but also came at a relatively earlier pick, with 10.9 to 12 percent alcohol the norm for this element in the wine. The 2019 obviously big and bold, 2018 flavoursome, 2017 a bit green and weedy, the rest mature and soft, dry red wine”. The resulting wine settles into around 13% alcohol, “an interesting wine to blend and a heap of fun”, Fraser quips. It’s a wine that I see in bits but but everything contributes, a team effort where you can feel the elements at play, and that in itself gives you an additional experience. Not incoherent, not unbalanced, you get this distinct sense of the elements that make up the wine; the fog of potent, darker fruit, fig and date richness, floral lift, lavender and violets, faint game meat, white pepper and a curious whiff of ripe stone fruit in the mix. Texture is amazing, all grippy, but with plushness at the same time – a two speed texture, let’s say, but delivering all the pleasure and structure of great, great wine. Exceptional length, never ending, gently palate-staining and rippling with piquant spice dusted on dark, brooding, inky fruit character. Amazing wine anyway you come at it. 97+ Points winefront.com.au