The Grampians is lusciosly dense and rich, with a velvet of cascade of black-fruit flavours supported by a fine net of ripe tannins and well handel oak. Both wines are screwcapped and will coast through to 2026. 95 points James Halliday, The Weekend Australia April 26-27th 2008
A beautiful follow up to the 2005 vintage of this wine. Quite expressive and powerful with plenty of dark brambly fruits in there with blackberry, dark cherries and spice really dominating. Massive bang for buck under $20 dollars a bottle. A hand crafted wine of power but also finesse. Remarkable. 92-93 points Anthony D'Anna
There is a good story to this. Winemaker Rory Lane takes small batches of Grampians fruit and makes them into wine in a little factory apartment in Melbourne. The fruit for this vintage is sourced from the Westgate and Robinson Vineyards (of Mount Langi fame) and it includes a portion of whole bunch action in the ferment which really lift the aromatics.
WINELINES by James Halliday, The Weekend Australian April 26, 2008
The annual make has increased to eight tonnes (this vintage) or around 550 cases, up from 400 cases in 2006. Even if the wines were sold at Robert Parker blessed prices (and they are not) a real world job was needed. He spent two years as marketing manager for Shelmerdine Vineyards, but is now technical director for Australian Winemaking Equipment Supplies, dealing with technical queries from customers and equipment development.
This came of his self-perceived need to increase his own technical knowledge, more often the territory of large wineries than small (or, in Rory's case, very small). In typical Australian fashion, he threw himself in the deep end, and I have no doubt he will succeed.
My confidence stems mainly from the quality of the wines he has made, but also from his focussed and highly successful pursuit of the best grapes he could buy in the Grampians, told in detail on his continuously updated website (how rare is that?), at times with alarming frankness as he broods about problems in the fermenters or barrels (which all ultimately resolve themselves).
He accepts in a matter-of-fact way the loss of grapes from Moyston Hills prior to the '06 vintage (Langi Ghiran bought the entire crop) and simply persuaded Bruce Dalkin of Westgate Vineyard to up his allocation to four tonnes. (Westgate has shiraz dating back to 1969, and produces very high quality of its own.) Grapes from Concongella Vineyard further north, and Garden Gully, completed the intake in '06.
He also explains precisely how the '06 Westgate Vineyard Shiraz (see this week's From the Region) came into being. He starts with the proposition there are three ways his wine in barrel can go: into a single vineyard/reserve wine; into the main Grampians blend; or down the drain.
He tastes all the barrels with a clear idea of how he wishes the Reserve/Single Vineyard to be, and along the way 'culls the nasty barrels'. In '06 he had two to three barrels of Westgate old vine material which had 'an almost refreshing lightness to them - power without weight'.
