The key to understanding Swinney’s Riesling is to appreciate the farming. All blocks are organically dry-farmed, the vines are cane-pruned and the row orientation is north to south. The team uses shade cloth in the Riesling blocks to protect the bunches from excessive sun exposure and avoid any roasted character in the fruit. Such precise vineyard management goes some way to explaining the wine’s purity and transparency.

Rob Mann’s search for structure and texture reigns in the cellar. The fruit (from two of Swinney’s oldest blocks in Powderbark Vineyard) is pressed as bunches and ferments naturally in stainless steel with a high solids component. This “builds nuance and a saline core in the wine”, according to Mann. The wine then rests on lees in tank to preserve freshness and build texture before bottling. 

Vintage 2024 came early. It was one of the hottest, driest years on record, so Swinney’s meticulous farming methods were more critical than ever in ensuring pristine Riesling fruit made it to Rob Mann in the cellar. Despite the atypical conditions, Mann tells us the season delivered fruit of “tremendous depth and intensity with balanced, high natural acidity”.

Swinney’s benchmark Syrah is hand-harvested from select parcels in the Wilsons Pool and Powderbark vineyards. Unlike the Grenache and Mourvèdre, the Syrah is trellised—although there are plans afoot for some single-stake Syrah. The sites are planted to various clones, including 470, Waldron and Jack Mann’s heritage mass-selection Syrah. Each clone gives a different bunch structure. Combined with the estate’s use of shade cloth to shield the fruit from the harsh afternoon rays, this helps build layers of structural complexity in the final wine. The cloth also creates soft, mottled light, lowers the temperature in the bunch zone and preserves freshness, spice and typicity (varietal and regional) in the fruit.

The berries were sorted into small wooden and stainless-steel fermenters via gravity. A well-integrated 22% bunch component was included to build structure and texture, providing a robust frame for the lustrous fruit. The 2023 spent 12 days on skins before being pressed directly to 600-litre fine-grained demi-muids (7% new) for 11 months. Purple flowers and ripe forest fruits are underlaid with black olive, hung meat and graphite. The palate is peppery, bloody and juicy, with a sense of coiled power. It maintains terrific tension with assertive, minerally tannins and plenty held in reserve.

Matt Swinney’s affection for the Southern Rhône and Priorat led him to plant bush-vine Grenache on Swinney’s ironstone hilltops in the 1990s. Grenache was hardly known in the area at the time, and there were many raised eyebrows in the region when the news got out. Matt’s hunch has since proved correct, and Swinney is now setting a new standard for Australian Grenache.

The 2023 Swinney Grenache was picked by hand from the well-established, dry-grown bush vines on the Wilsons Pool vineyard’s rich gravel/loam soils. Each vine was passed over multiple times to harvest perfect fruit. The bunches were destemmed and sorted berry by berry. Fermentation occurred with 20% bunches―bolstering the structural frame to balance the intensely aromatic, flavourful fruit―in a combination of small wooden fermenters and stainless-steel tanks. The wine spent two weeks on skins before being pressed to large (3600-litre), seasoned French wood for 11 months’ maturation. Swinney’s signature combination of dense flavour core―from the dry-grown bush vines―and lucid red and blue fruit freshness is writ large over the 2023. It has spice, sinew and a very moreish close with energising freshness to its distinctly chalky tannins.

The positive results of Swinney’s meticulous viticulture are, perhaps, felt most strongly in the Mourvèdre. For years, Rob Mann deployed this fruit to Swinney’s Southern Rhône-inspired blend, which became increasingly difficult as the quality kept rising. This is the third straight bottling, and wine is basking in the spotlight. This is the Mourvèdre show! 

Swinney’s Mourvèdre is drawn from dry-grown bush vines on Wilsons Pool Vineyard, planted in the early 2000s on rich gravelly-loam soils. The fruit was picked by hand when flavour and tannin were perfectly ripe, then sorted berry by berry and transferred via gravity to a single stainless-steel fermenter. Bunches were bumped up a touch this year—a well-judged 30% highlighting the variety’s “distinctive ferrous qualities, fine structure and wild spice”. It spent 11 days on skins before being pressed to fine-grained large-format French oak, where it matured for 11 months.  

Mann says Swinney’s Mourvèdre is the wine that most clearly expresses the site’s signature ferrous, rusty nail character. Violet, lavender, and blue/blackberries provide the lift, with salumi, pepper, and gravel tugging below. The palate is plush and bright, with a line of sweet, pure fruit and powdery tannins puffing out across the back and extending the graphite and iron mineral notes wide and long.