Smalltown Vineyards Clovella Mataro Grenache

Smalltown Vineyards express many of the Barossa’s prized districts form Gomersal, Kalimna as well as the Eden Valley and beyond. They work with exceptional vineyards, simply expressed using minimal intervention, basket press where relevant, natural ferments in open top fermenters to best capture the Barossa’s magical flavours. They have a lot of fun with labels because, well because they can. It’s only wine after all…

As of the 1st July, 2019, Australia changed from its previous sustainable programme called EntWine to Sustainable Winegrowing Australia. Smalltown Vineyards is a participant in this programme, which assists with tools and resources to enhance business sustainability, meeting customer sustainability requirements and sustainability claims made by participants.

Australian wine consumers will also benefit from consistent communication underpinned by such a technically robust scheme.

Flovilla Thatch was the dentist’s assistant in the Russ Meyer boob-flick “Beneath the Valley of the Super-Vixens". The name was mis-remembered after a heady night of blending but stuck and this vineyard has been known as Clovella since. The label bears no relation to Russ Meyer's steamy ouput but the sultry nature of the wine does. The design inspiration is all about the meeting of mouths, that energy before lips meet, whether meeting a glass of wine or each other. Two varieties blending into one.

Grenache, Mataro

Clovella is a field planting of roughly 70/30 Mataro and Grenache. It is a 40 year old vineyard from the Gomersal sub-district of the Barossa Valley that Rolf Binder and Noel Young have been cultivating themselves for many years.

The wine spends 22 months in older French oak. The purpose of this wine is to show Mataro and Grenache with some development rather than the super-juicy-young bright Grenache of the moment.

It starts with cassis, a nose full of promise. Clove and black pepper spice. The palate is dark and sultry with a dried fruit appeal. It finishes with a gentle lick of oak from the time the wine spends in oak.

Great with braises and stews: long slow cooked roasts of pork or lamb.