James Halliday Winery Rating   4 ½ Stars

News

April 30th 2008

Well, the 2008 vintage is now behind us. Some weather! Fifteen days at 35° or more at exactly the wrong time. Fortunately we managed to get two thirds of our crop off before the hot spell took hold and the rest before too much shrivel. We had a couple of tricky ferments but I am pleased to say that the Shiraz wines in barrel are now looking fantastic with some really interesting flavours.

This year, for the first time, harvesting was done by volunteers, a great group of people who came along and bent their backs in the hot sun and filled lots of buckets. We had some great days and some memorable characters and some lubrication at the end of the day. Many thanks to all who helped, we'll be doing it again next year.

Unfortunately the Mourvedre was a casualty of the extreme weather so we will not be doing a 2008 Shiraz/Mourvedre but I did manage to buy a tonne of very good Sangiovese so you can look forward to a Shiraz/Sangiovese in a couple of years time.

December 29th 2007

The upcoming 2008 vintage is looking fantastic at this stage.  Flowering and fruit set went perfectly, the rain a week or so ago was perfectly timed and the vineyard looks fresh and healthy without a drop of irrigation water so far this year.  The bunches are incredibly long and open this year and I have attached a photo to show you all how good that looks.  Veraison is probably not too far away with this warm weather we are having currently and then we just have to let them ripen and pick them!

The 2006 Symposium is getting noticed with great reviews from Campbell Mattinson, Nick Stock and Gary Walsh.  It is also gratifying that both the 2005 and 2006 vintages of the Symposium were judged as the top wine in the 'Other Red Blends' class at the McLaren Vale show in 2006 and 2007.

I have recently tasted some back vintages of Marius and I am delighted with the way that they are travelling!  The first wine under our label, the 2000 Shiraz is, in my opinion, quite stunning with the fruit having now soaked up the French oak.  A wine of power and restraint, it is ready to drink now but should hold well for many years.  The 2002 Shiraz is still amazingly youthful, it displays good integration and balance and I am confident that it will stand with the best in years to come.  It is a pleasure to drink now but I recommend holding off for at least three years.  In contrast, the 2003 Shiraz is ready to go.  By that I mean that it is probably entering its optimum drinking window if you like some primary fruit but it is still fresh and vibrant with no signs of falling over.

October 13th 2007

The 2006 Symposium has recovered from bottling and is looking fantastic, it picked up a Silver medal at the Royal Adelaide Wine Show yesterday in Class 26, red blends, any vintage.  It will be released in about a week.  It is interesting that, at a couple of informal tastings, it has probably generated more excitement than any of my other wines.

There are some horror predictions out there regarding the 2008 vintage yields but, at this stage, our vineyard is looking good with average fruitfulness.  It is early days, in a month we will have flowering and fruit set behind us but at this stage I am optimistic.

July 1st 2007

The 2005 Simpatico and Symphony are now released.  The Symphony is a velvety and intense beast.

February 25th 2007

An incredible vintage.  It is hard to believe that all the Shiraz is now bubbling away in the fermentation tubs and we are still in February.  The Shiraz yielded 1.5 tonnes per acre which is certainly on the low side but much better than some of the horror stories I have been hearing.  I am very pleased with the quality of the Shiraz; it is early days but the flavours from those tiny berries this year look very promising.

The Mourvedre is looking good and I expect to pick that in about ten days, which is about a month earlier than last year.

The 2005 Simpatico and 2005 Symphony have been bottled and are currently resting.  They are wines of structure and are currently scheduled for release in June/July this year.

The January prize draw was won by Mark N of Leura, NSW.  Mark will receive a bottle of each of the 2005 Marius Symposium Shiraz/Mourvedre and the 2004 Marius Simpatico Shiraz.  The next draw will take place in July 2007 and the winner will receive a bottle of each of the 2005 Marius Simpatico Shiraz and the 2005 Marius Symphony Shiraz.

October 23rd 2006

The 2005 Symposium has been very well received by the critics who have seen it and I just heard today that it was awarded a Gold medal at the McLaren Vale Wine Show.  The wine won its class and was the equal highest pointed wine in the show.

The vineyard is looking great with the most consistency across the vineyard that we have ever seen.  We are just starting flowering so I have my fingers crossed for some fine weather over the next 2 - 3 weeks.

August 5th 2006

The 2005 Shiraz/Mourvedre blend, the 'Symposium', has now been bottled.  I think that it is a very exciting wine and I shall tell you more about it closer to release, probably in early September.

The winner of the July prize draw was Don J of Nairne in SA.  Don has received a bottle of each of the 2003 Marius Shiraz and the 2004 Marius Simpatico.  The next draw will take place in January 2007 and the winner will receive a bottle of each of the 2004 Marius Simpatico Shiraz and the 2005 Marius Symposium Shiraz/Mourvedre.

April 24th 2006

The mail-out for the 2004 vintage wines, the Symphony and the Simpatico, has now gone out to members of the Marius Wine Club.  When we have satisfied that demand the wines will go on general release.  The wines are very good, I think that they are the best wines yet to carry the Marius label.  The response from the critics and others so far has been terrific and I think that both of these wines will attract a lot of interest.

The 2006 vintage is now behind us with all of our wines now in barrel.  Everything seemed to go very smoothly this year and the wines look fantastic!

February 19th 2006

Our 2004 wines were bottled in the first week of February.  We are now producing two single vineyard Shiraz from our home block - Marius Simpatico and Marius Symphony.  We are very excited about these wines.  They are now resting from the ordeals of the bottling line and I shall tell you more about them later.  I am planning to release them in May.

I am also planning to release a 2005 Shiraz/Mourvedre blend later in the year.

The 2006 vintage will start for us in three or four weeks.  At this stage the fruit is looking fantastic and slowly ripening in this benign weather we are experiencing this year.  Fingers crossed.

I finally got around to drawing the winner of our January prize draw for a bottle of each of the 2002 and 2003 Marius Shiraz. The winner is Catherine B of Fullarton in SA.  The next draw will be in July for a bottle of each of the 2003 Marius Shiraz and the 2004 Marius Simpatico.  All Australian resident members of the Marius Wine Club are entered in this free draw twice a year so if you are not already a member sign up here.

November 6th 2005

Today we have introduced our money back guarantee, click here fore details.

October 2nd 2005

Budburst is now upon us.  I love this time of the year in the vineyard; a sort of re-birth, a new year with the opportunity to do it even better this vintage!

I recently tasted the 2004 Shiraz wines in barrel and they are looking very good.  We shall probably bottle in January or February and again the numbers will be small, probably less than 500 cases as 2004 was a prolific yielding vintage and I was probably a little over-enthusiastic in my crop thinning.  I would guess that we will be releasing our 2004 vintage wines in May or June next year.

The 2005 vintage may be our best yet.  The 2005 in barrel seems to have everything that we strive for.  We also decided to stretch our wings a little and we purchased some Mourvedre from a local grower.  Mourvedre is also commonly known as Mataro or Monastrell.  It is a grape that I like very much which produces wines of meaty and gamy complexity but it is a tricky blighter to grow as it is a late-ripening variety so the baume tends to get up a bit in our climate before those seeds get ripe.  Unripe seeds means green tannins so we got them ripe and we may have a 16% alc. wine in 2007!  The intention at this time is to release our Shiraz, the Mourvedre and a Shiraz/Mourvedre blend so 2007 will be very interesting for us.

This year has been a tricky one for most people in the wine industry as there is a global wine glut of terrifying proportions.  We are ticking along pretty much to budget but I am afraid that we shall see the demise of many small and medium producers over the next couple of years.

I hope that you are all enjoying your wines, whether it has a Marius label on it or not, and please consider joining our wine club, there is the chance to win free wine and you will be guaranteed an allocation of our wine in future years.  One day the list will close.