Tim Smith is one of the Barossa's leading small producers, with a focus firmly on varietals with proven success in the region, including Mataro, Shiraz and Grenache. Tim Smith's newly released 2008 Mataro Grenache Shiraz blend showcases these varietals with all fruit sourced from low yielding, Barossa vines. Smith employs traditional winemaking practices including partial whole bunch fermentation, basket pressing and ageing on fine yeast lees in old french oak hogsheads.
This is a superb example of how these varietals work so well together with each component contributing something different. The Mataro provides structure, the Grenache juiciness and palate sweetness, whilst the Shiraz delivers length. The result is a meaty, spicy and savoury blend with earthy aromas of plums, and polished leather. The palate is generous, with some powerful black fruit flavours and fleshiness, complimented superbly by some subtle oak handling. This is a wonderful wine that firmly cements Tim Smith as a producer on the rise.
"94 Points. Well it’s extremely good, that’s what it is. Love at first sip. Floral, blackberried and meaty all at once with a lightly earthen aspect, and soft, soft but also firm with terrific shape - much like a Dunlopillow (which I once had until one of my friends pinched it off my bed and stuffed it up the back of his shirt in order to achieve a ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame’ effect for Bastille day hiijinks. Never saw it again, that pillow I had from childhood). It’s juicy but not sweet and has no noisome oak - made much like a classic Chateauneuf I’d wager and beautifully done too, exhibiting supreme balance and drinkability. Just smashing really and good to the last - drank the whole bottle (over two nights). Tasted : Jun09. Alcohol : 14.5% Price : $28 Closure : Screwcap. Drink : 2010 - 2018" - Gary Walsh, The Wine Front.
"93 Points. Strong colour; a luscious array of dusky black fruits which glide across the tongue, leading to a fresh finish; very good, though atypical. Screwcap. 14.5% alc. Drink 2017 $28 Date Tasted Jul 09" - James Halliday, Australian Wine Companion 2010 Edition.
"Unlike most ‘GSM’ style wines this wine is predominantly made from Mataro (or, Mourvedre), with lesser percentages of Grenache and Shiraz. I’ve always been a big fan of the Mataro grape, and the wines of Bandol in the South of France, so I’ve unashamedly modelled this wine on that regions wines, with a ‘New World’ slant" - Tim Smith.
