To launch their 125th year of winemaking, Kay Brothers have released two traditional Vales reds, one wildcat surprise and another very dark horse still in the stalls ...
Kay Brothers
Basket Pressed McLaren Vale Grenache 2014
$25; 14% alcohol;
screw cap; 88+ points
This is a gnarly old-style Grenache, a little leathery,
but mainly rich with the whiffs of fruitcake and Christmas pudding. And it has
plenty of the sour cherry aroma I expect of the best Vales Grenache, all of
which adds up to a seductive velvety mellowness. Add some salty dark chocolate
sauce, and you're there. The flavours twist around before they settle, with
snaky appetising acid entwined about those grainy tannins. It's a drink for the
paler meats: lamb, turkey or if you're lucky enough to find some, the delicious
guinea fowl, with stewed beets and roast parsnip. Decant it to let its lungs
open, or stack it away for a few years if you want more silk than velvet.
Kay Brothers
Basket Pressed McLaren Vale Nero d'Avola 2014
$25; 13.5% alcohol;
screw cap; 92+ points
A year after I drank it, Tash Mooney's Fox Gordon 2013 AdelaideHills model of this savage Sicilian grape is still skulking round my head like
a wolverine, a gluttonous jarfr
coming off a meth nightmare. I've not seen another example so memorable. Until
this one, which is a little less savage but only because it's not on drugs and
not so snarly. Where Tash's brute smelled like it was slinking singed from its
lair in the blackberry bushes after a lightning strike this one's not in sight
but its bearish spoor leads into a hedgerow of all sorts of prickles and
brambles and berries, including the black ones. It smells sometimes of carbon
pencil and Dutch licorice often comes to mind but it's almost always like the
dark sappy heart of fresh-hewn blackwood. It's slightly sinister. It doesn't
smell like grapes. Considering this is only the second crop from a 2010
planting, it must love its terroir between Kay's worshipful Block 6 Shiraz and
the creek. It has a feral/furry/varmint type of a flavour and shape, too: it
slinks. I love it. It rollicks with my first real cassoulet of the year: a
forester's mess of sheep neck and sausages smoked over old French red wine oak,
with lupini in amongst the haricot beans, tomatoes, garlic, black peppercorns
and a pinch of ghost chilli.
Kay Brothers
Basket Pressed McLaren Vale Shiraz 2013
$25; 14% alcohol;
screw cap; 91++ points
There's no better way of celebrating Kay Brothers' 125th
anniversary than snapping the cap of this new inexpensive line of their
stalwart grape, the mighty Shiraz. Below its tantalising prickle of peppery
nettles and cress, this one's all stewed satsuma, prune and mulberry to sniff,
simmering, but still showing plenty of slippery fresh fruit. You can sniff away
happily for yonks, but when you pour it into yourself the gears change and
you're off on a pleasant slide of pleasure, with the overt flavour of Shiraz
replacing those other fruits the bouquet advertised. It has perfect acidity and
that classic Kay Brothers tannin, tapering off into a naughty lingering tease.
For 125 years, the Kays have bred and
trained their Shiraz to slurp with the family roast, so I can't go beyond that
with harmonious food suggestions.
Another tease: after the commencement of the birthday celebrations
at Easter, Kay's will release their 125 Years Of Wine Heritage Sparkling NV
Shiraz, a mix of vintages blended to age for six years in big old oak before
lying a year in bottle, finally liqueured with a drop of their gorgeous old
tawny and sealed with a stainless steel crown cap, so it'll live for nearly
ever in your cellar. Be prepared!
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