Clare Valley, South Australia, AustraliaExpect a medium-weight red with raspberry, black cherries, and cranberries, freshly clipped herbs, and a light spicy finish. It is a thoughtful style of red that fills a niche for those who prefer less weight and tannins in favour of food-friendly crunchy reds. The Koerner Clare Red has been described as a Bordeaux blend made in a Loire style, alluding to its vibrant, juicy, bright fruits and soft tannins. I think it’s a bit Beaujolais-like too. The premise is that by mixing several Clare varieties grown on cooler sites, you can create something that exceeds the solo version of any single varietal wine. The 2022 is a cabernet sauvignon dominated blend with cabernet franc, grenache, malbec, carignan and sciacarello. Red clay on limestone terra rossa is the soil composition structure all fermented in open-top tanks with 50% whole berries, no whole bunch that is hand plunged twice daily for two weeks. The finished juice is aged in Slavonian foudre for 12 months and racked off to stainless steel for four months.Tasted: 11 October 2024Tasted by: Prices:
Clare Valley, South Australia, AustraliaThe Koerner brothers like to show a neoclassic view of their home, Clare Valley, and its wines like this, The Clare, that typify their MO. This is their take on a Bordeaux blend, and in 2022 the blend was 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Cabernet Franc, 11% Grenache, 7% Malbec, 4% Carignan, and 2% Sciacarello off the terra rossa soils of Vivian, Parish, and Gullyview Vineyards, and vines planted in 1930 and 1998. This vintage was 50% whole berry (no whole bunch), native fermented in open top steel for two weeks on skins, and then racked into Slavonian foudre for 12 months. This was returned to steel for 4 months prior to bottling unfined and unfiltered, and with a minimum of sulphur. Alluring and intoxicating mint mixes with darkest chocolate, and is imbued with scrubby resinous herbs and wildflowers. Dark cherry, wild blackberry fills the fleshy core, structured with cab's ferrous and firm tannins. For all its concentration, this finishes at an admirable 13%, making it drinkable now (try long roasted ribs) or in future. The Diam10 cork leads me to believe it has a good future ahead.Tasted: 18 November 2024Tasted by: Prices:
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