In human relationships, and even in our turbulent times, we occasionally encounter a partnership between two people that just seems to get better as time passes. It seems that such a partnership is in progress between The Granite Belt and Tannat. Tannat is a French variety from the south west, it’s known for densely coloured powerful fruit and big tannins.
Peter Stark, the former Boireann owner, is known for his like of tannins and also for his preference for making wines in the style he and his wife Therese prefer to drink them, he often describes them as a more ballsy style. This 2016 Tannat, a good local vintage, is very deeply purple coloured at the centre and spreading to a lovely pastel purple at the very edges – lovely to look at as you swirl it in a big glass in a good light. No whole bunch in this wine, open fermented and resting in French oak for 11 months. The wine is at first somewhat closed and takes time to breathe but then there is a lifted bouquet of mulberries, liquorice, chocolate and spice. The palate is dense and powerful with superb structural balance. Mulberries, blueberries and boysenberries quickly announce themselves, spices, dark chocolate and granitic mineral qualities join the conversation which is facilitated throughout by a tannic narrator who allows everyone else to have a voice while exercising a perfectly firm guidance in combination with a particularly polite acid.
I have to state that I’m guilty of being seduced by Granite Belt Tannat and then within that bias to state that this is right up there with the best Granite Belt wines I have ever tasted. It’s full bodied and powerful yet manages to help you encounter those characteristics with a skilfully guided slightly disguised mask. I have a few of these sleeping away, if this site is, hopefully, still up and running 10 years from now we’ll see how this wines narrator guides it’s conversation participants after a longer slumber. I’m not suggesting that the wine is a ten year cellaring proposition as it will easily exceed that, however if you are a lover of primary fruit you may find yourself consuming this wine now.
Tasted: Friday/Saturday 4th April, 2020 without food and then with over several hours.
Alcohol: 14%
Closure: Screwcap
Price: $35
Suggested Drinking Window: now (if you really like your primary fruit), otherwise 2024 – 2034
Winemaker: Peter Stark
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