Category: Shiraz

Rave reviews from Huon Hooke for our new release wines

Nancy

Huon, we couldn’t agree more with your assessment of our wines. A couple of comments in particular caught our attention. Read on to find out which comments go with which wine.

– Drive and elegance
– Ripping shiraz
– Supple tannins and excellent balance
– Pretty and easy going
– Long, resonating finish

SubRosa 2019 Malakoff Estate Shiraz

95/100
Deep colour and aromas of fresh-turned earth, plum, spices and overtones of graphite and ironstone. The wine is intense and focused, taut and precise on the tongue. Lovely wine of real concentration and focus, drive and elegance, the stony mineral theme running throughout. A ripping shiraz, great to drink now and has a bright future.
Drink: 2022–2034

Top rank, #1 in 2019 Shiraz from the Pyrenees

SubRosa 2019 Grampians Pyrenees Shiraz

SubRsa 2019 Grampians Pyrenees Shiraz91/100

Deep colour; aromas of fresh-turned earth and plum and a whiff of star anise. Medium-full bodied shiraz with supple tannins and excellent balance. Good early drinking shiraz which will also keep well.
Drink: 2022–2031

SubRosa 2019 Pyrenees Nebbiolo

91/100
Medium-full red with a purple trim, bright and attractive. There are dried-herb, sweet berry and floral aromas, more fruity and aromatic than expected of nebbiolo, while the palate is medium-bodied and quite mild in its tannins. Gentle sweet berry fruit leads. It’s a moderately complex, fruit-driven wine, pretty and easygoing—just a mild kick of firmness lingering on the farewell to remind us of the grape.
Drink: 2022–2029

SubRosa 2021 Grampians Viognier 

94/100
Light, bright yellow hue leads into a creamy, talcy, nutty, savoury barrel-fermented style of bouquet, wheaty/mealy and quite complex. The spice/apricot fruit is a little hidden just now. In the mouth, it’s intense and medium-full bodied, with richness and roundness typical of this grape. Long, resonating finish. Very good, but it could benefit from another year to tone down the oak.

Purchase your new release SubRosa wine here.

Winemaker Adam Louder’s perspective on harvest 2023

Nancy

Harvest 2023 has begun in the Grampians. Our winemaker Adam is in the thick of his 39th vintage (three countries, four regions). What does that mean?

39 times (in 25 years) he has participated in the process that includes harvesting grapes and turning them into wine.

His roles have varied over the years. He has cleaned the winery and equipment, worked in a laboratory analysing samples, picked grapes, managed vineyards, run a cellar, been a harvest winemaker and chief winemaker.

Each year is different thanks to seasonal weather conditions, staff and experience. Here’s Adam’s take on how harvest 2023 is shaping up.

Is harvest late, early or about the same time this year?

“Harvest is later than average in the Grampians this year,” says Adam. “We had a cooler than average growing season with plenty of spring rain followed by a dry mild summer.”

Are you going to do anything new/differently this year for SubRosa?

“We’re working with organic shiraz for our Rosé for the first time.”

How is this vintage shaping up compared to previous vintages?

“It is definitely a challenging season with disease pressure. We only make SubRosa wine when the grape quality is of a high standard as I want us to maintain our integrity. If the grapes are not up to my standards we will not make a variety.”

10 years since you started making wine for SubRosa, what’s the biggest change in your winemaking style/fruit selection over that time?

“In 2013 I made wine my way for the first time. We made Grampians Shiraz, Nebbiolo and Chardonnay. We moved to Viognier from Chardonnay in 2015 as a white variety. I really enjoy making, and drinking Viognier. It’s a complex and more exotic white wine. Stylistically our wines haven’t changed that much. I’m enjoying trying our wines as they age.”

We will re-release a limited amount of our 2013 wines later this year – keep your eyes out.

Chocolate and wine pairing

Nancy

Red wine and dark chocolate make a wonderful pairing

When you love chocolate AND wine, you naturally find a way to make them work together!

Adam is a chocoholic. There is barely a day that goes by that doesn’t include chocolate! Mostly cadbury dairy milk.

As Easter is just around the corner, we thought we’d share with you why chocolate and wine pair beautifully and which wines we would enjoy with chocolate.

Characters of chocolate

Dark chocolate

Dark Chocolate is intense thanks to 70 – 100% cacao (Nancy loves 70% but is not a fan of 100% cacao chocolate!). You will find a combination of fruit, earth, wood, ash and nut notes. The intense flavours of dark, rich chocolate call for bolder, denser wines. Big and big work.

Varietal matches: We enjoy rich dark chocolate with our newly released 2019 Malakoff Estate Shiraz. This bold Shiraz from the warmer climate of the Pyrenees has bright yet rich fruit flavours. Our 2017 Grampians Cabernet would also pair beautifully.

Milk chocolate

Milk chocolate (Adam’s favourite) is higher in milk and sugar and has a smaller percentage of cacao than dark chocolate. This makes it sweeter and milder with flavours including cocoa, cream, nuts, malt, vanilla and honey.

Varietal matches: Milk chocolate characteristics pair well with wines that are lighter, savoury and/or fruity. We enjoy our 2019 Pyrenees Nebbiolo or 2019 Grampians Pyrenees Shiraz as the complex savoury characteristics of our SubRosa wines complement milk chocolate.

White chocolate

White chocolate isn’t a true chocolate as it doesn’t include cocoa, but its rich sweet flavours of cream, honey and vanilla make it a great pairing with bright aromatic and fruity wines.

Varietal matches: Our 2021 Grampians Viognier would be our go to as the apricot, stonefruit and ginger notes enhance the flavours of white chocolate (or chocolate mousse). Crisp sparkling is also another favourite pairing in our house.

What’s your favourite chocolate and wine pairing?

We all have a unique palate, likes and dislikes. So give it a go. Experiment with chocolate and wine and discover what works best for you. Have fun!

Wine offer, with free shipping, for your Easter Feast

Like to conduct your own wine and chocolate pairings this Easter? We’ve put together an Easter Feast 6-pack. It includes wines in this article, as well as our new release 2019 Grampians Shiraz.

Order by April 5 to receive free shipping. (Enter code: SREaster6)

How close is harvest 2023?

Nancy

 

 

Adam Louder, winemaker for SubRosa wines, checking grapes on the vine during harvest

Each year in late summer/early autumn (February/March) grapes ripen and are ready for harvest. Winemakers refer to this time as “vintage” as it is at this time grapes enter the winery and begin their journey to become wine. Harvest 2023 in the Grampians is almost here!

2023 is Adam Louder’s 39th vintage. An amazing achievement for the 42 year old.

How is vintage 2023 shaping up?

Each vintage is different. The biggest influence is the grape growing conditions, which are determined by the weather.

The growing conditions for vintage 2023 included lots of spring rain thanks to La Niña. This rain led to humid conditions creating disease pressure in early summer. Adam spent a lot of time in the vineyard looking for disease which luckily didn’t eventuate! A warm, dry summer has reduced the disease pressure and the focus now is on grape ripening and keeping wildlife (mostly birds) away from the vines.

How does Adam approach each vintage?

We should put a pedometer on Adam in late summer as he walks the vines every day inspecting grapes and vine health. As the grapes ripen, he starts tasting. He tastes grapes on his walks in the vineyard for more than two months. This process can start as early as February and continue to April/May – it all depends on mother nature. In the peak of vintage, Adam will taste more than 100 grapes a day. He squeezes the grape and looks at the grape skin, observes its texture and how juicy it is. He tastes the grape for flavour, sweetness and complexity. Then he spits the grape out. Guess who doesn’t eat table grapes at home?

 

Adam Louder, winemaker of SubRosa is checking the grapes sugar levels by squeezing it

 

What’s more important in making a high quality wine – art or science?

Winemaking is a combination of art and science. The art part is all experience. From his 38 previous harvests, Adam has developed a very refined palate. Using his intuition he is guided by taste as the primary marker. But he’s not against the use of science, in a supporting way. A refractometer is a small, handheld tool used by Adam that uses a prism to measure baumé. Baumé is a measurement of dissolved soluble solids in grape juice and indicates the grapes’ sugar level and ripeness. Sugar converts to alcohol in winemaking, so this is an indicator of the potential alcohol in the wine.

Adam will start tasting grapes in early March this year. Once he is happy with the grape texture and flavour he will begin picking and the winemaking process begins.

It’s is an exciting time. Every vintage is different. You never know what challenges you’ll be thrown.

Every winemaker likes to talk up the vintage, but what we do know for harvest 2023 in the Grampians is that the temperatures have been milder which means slower ripening. As they ripen slowly, grapes develop a more complex taste. Complexity means a wine is multi-faceted. Many types of aromas, flavours, and layers of depth on the palate. In other words, delicious.

In the words of Adam,

“We’re still a few weeks away from picking grapes. Not long now and we’ll get the first taste of what vintage 23 will deliver.”

How to enjoy red wine in summer

Nancy

SubRosa wine at sunset

On hot days, we often reach for a cool drink, but you don’t have to wait for the leaves to change colour to enjoy a good red. Red wine can be a great match on a balmy summer night or for those countless BBQ’s with friends.

Here are our top tips for enjoying red wine in summer.

  1. Avoid big, bold wines that are high in alcohol. Heavily oaked wines with high tannin are not as enjoyable as lighter bodied wines in warm weather. Save the robust red for a rich, winter dish.
  2. Lightweight clothes work in warm weather, just like lighter bodied red wines. Our favourite red varieties to enjoy in warmer months include Nebbiolo, Grenache and cool-climate Shiraz. Rosé is also a hit (especially with Nancy). Made from red grapes in the style of a white wine, Rosé that is bright, flavourful and textured is delicious. Rosé is best enjoyed within two years of bottling.
  3. Chill it. Red wine should be served at 15 – 18C which is cooler than Australian-summer room temperature. Place your bottle of red wine in the fridge for about 15 – 20 minutes before serving. Before pouring, touch the side of the wine bottle. The wine should feel cool to the touch, but not cold. Rosé should be chilled and removed from the fridge 15 minutes before sharing.
  4. If your wine starts to warm-up as you drink it, pop it back in the fridge for five minutes, but don’t let it get too cold. Serving a red wine too cold masks aromas and flavours. Serving red wine too warm makes it unbalanced. The alcohol gets its party shoes on and leaps out of the glass.

So the secret sauce, wine selection and wine temperature. Cheers to more red wine on summer days!

Adam’s favourite summer red: Cool climate shiraz. Try our 2018 SubRosa Grampians Shiraz.

 

Why decant wine?

Nancy

Why decant wine?

You don’t need a fancy decanter to get the most out of a bottle of wine.

What does decanting do to wine? Let’s break it down.

Wine smell and taste can be improved from exposure to air, oxygen to be specific.

According to Adam, when you decant a wine you let it breathe. And in doing so, the aromas come out. It opens up. “You get more out of your wine,” says Adam. Try this with our 2016 SubRosa Malakoff Estate Pyrenees Shiraz.

Young wines with high tannin can benefit from decanting for as little as 30 minutes. Wines with a little bottle age not only open up from the air exposure, but by decanting you can limit the sediment making it to your glass.

A red wine stored in a cooler location can reach ideal drinkable temperature by decanting.

Decanters don’t need to be expensive crystal, the same effect on the wine can be achieved using a glass or ceramic jug (our favourite when travelling) or the winemaker’s go to – a flask!

“If you are buying wine of a high quality, there is a good chance your wine will benefit from decanting,” says Adam.

A little secret trick of the trade…decant the wine in a jug, and pour it back into the bottle to serve. Voilà.

What is budburst and why is it important?

Nancy

SubRosa grape vine budburst

It’s budburst in the Grampians wine region and winemakers and viticulturists are excited.

Grape vines are deciduous. After fruiting in summer they lose their leaves during autumn and go into dormancy for winter. In early spring grape vines use the energy stored in their roots and wood to create new leaves. These leaves burst from their buds, hence the term “budburst”.

The air temperature, soil temperature and variety of the vine will all play a role in when budburst occurs.

Interestingly, Nebbiolo is one of the first grape varieties to burst and also one of the last varieties to ripen making it a risky variety to grow as it is more susceptible to weather events (like frost) and disease.

Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the last varieties to burst.

SubRosa Cabernet grape vine budburst
SubRosa Cabernet grape vine at budburst

“Budburst is a little later than the last few seasons due to the wet and mild start to spring,” according to Adam Louder, SubRosa co-founder and winemaker.

Budburst in the Grampians is the beginning of another growing season and vintage. A reason to get excited. Vintage 2023 will be here before we know it!

SubRosa wine new releases – 2021

Nancy

They’re here! Our SubRosa new release wines for 2021.

2020 SubRosa Grampians Viognier

The eagerly awaited 2020 SubRosa Grampians Viognier has finally arrived! We’re thankful to those who have patiently waited for our 2020 vintage release.

We produce Viognier when the grapes are the highest quality, which is why we did not produce a vintage in 2019. We are very proud of our 2020 Grampians Viognier.

This wine is a cracker. Beautiful aromas of stone fruit with great texture and complexity. We like to serve this wine at room temperature, much like you would a good soft cheese. In our house, Viognier is the go-to wine for a Sunday roast chicken, or, thanks to the versatility of the wine, is a great pairing for heartier dishes like pork, veal and even lamb!

Drinking beautifully now – or if you can, hold on to a couple of bottles/cases and see how it evolves over time (from five to seven years), This special, Grampians Viognier is a lovely wine to watch evolve.

RRP: $30

100 cases produced.

Naturally fermented and matured for nine months in French oak. Vegan-friendly.

Limited availability – two bottles / order.

BUY HERE

2018 SubRosa Pyrenees Nebbiolo

Jenni Port of Halliday Wine Companion describes our 2018 SubRosa Pyrenees Nebbiolo as a “pretty complex picture”. And recommends you “give it time in the cellar”. We agree, but it’s also drinking really well right now. We enjoy our 2018 Pyrenees Nebbiolo with pizza or pasta and as the weather gets warmer with friends as we BBQ.

RRP: $45

190 cases produced.

Matured for 16 months in French oak.  No fining or filtration. Vegan-friendly.

Huon Hooke describes our 2018 Nebbiolo as:

Like a pinot with tannin.

BUY HERE

2018 SubRosa Grampians Shiraz 

Ah Grampians Shiraz. It’s why we are here. This vintage of our Grampians Shiraz is best summed up by Huon Hooke who awarded it 96 points.

Deep, rich, bright colour, with a smoky-char and earthy-ironstone shiraz nose, surprisingly complex for its years and savoury, the palate likewise supple, mellow, savoury and multi-layered. Toasty, pepper-spicy, the palate elegantly crafted and refined, with a core of fruit sweetness and finishing with lovely balance and completeness. Harmony and charm. A really superb shiraz, and great value.

RRP: $30

100 cases produced.

Naturally fermented and matured for 16 months in French oak.

Drink by 2028. No fining. Vegan-friendly.

BUY HERE

Coming soon: 2021 SubRosa Pyrenees Nebbiolo Rosé

Say I love you dad this Father’s Day with SubRosa Shiraz

Nancy
SubRosa winemaker Adam Louder with his children
SubRosa Winemaker, and dad, Adam Louder.

Every day is father’s day in our house – but the first Sunday in September is extra special.

If your dad loves Shiraz like our in-house Dad Adam Louder, give the gift of SubRosa.

Your dad will love our Father’s Day Shiraz gift packs.

Shipping is challenging in Victoria at the moment. If we can’t hand deliver your order, we will send you a gift certificate for you to share with your dad to let him know his handmade, small batch SubRosa wine is on its way!

If you have any questions – please contact Nancy at nancy@subrosawine.com.

Father’s Day Shiraz six pack

Father’s Day Shiraz 4-pack special – local delivery only

The National Wine Centre hosts Grampians and Pyrenees wine tasting

Nancy

National Wine Centre NWC at HomeThe National Wine Centre is giving wine lovers the chance to visit Australia’s wine regions from home with online masterclasses.

Throughout 2020, the NWC at Home program will work through the A-Z of Australian Wine Regions with masterclasses featuring six wines from six wineries.

Tonight’s event features the Grampians and Pyrenees and SubRosa’s winemaker Adam Louder along with Grampians Wine Cellar’s Simon Freeman will be available as part of the Zoom experience to answer questions.

The wines featured are:

  • 2019 Fallen Giants ‘FG’ Riesling $30
  • 2017 The Story Marsanne, Roussanne, Viognier $29
  • 2017 Best’s Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir $45
  • 2018 Pyren Vineyard ‘Franc’ Cabernet Franc $35
  • 2015 Sally’s Paddock ‘Sally’s Hill Cabernets’ Cabernet Sauvignon Blend $38
  • 2015 SubRosa ‘Aristocracy’ Grampians Shiraz $45 – Contact winery direct for purchase
  • Mystery Wine $25

The National Wine Centre is located in Adelaide and is the national showcase for the Australian wine industry.

Join the club

Enjoy seasonally handpicked wines delivered to your door.

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Rave reviews from Huon Hooke for our new release wines