2018 Vintage: Our 15th Anniversary
The 2018 vintage is well and truly done and dusted, with all our latest wines safely tucked away in barrel and tank to mature. Exceptional colours, vibrant yet concentrated fruit with plenty of structure on the palate, 2018 is already shaping up as a cracking year.
This year John celebrated his 45th Barossa vintage, and the 15th anniversary since leaving Penfolds to start our own family winery. Certainly 30 odd years with Penfolds wasn’t a bad apprenticeship when starting your own wine brand! There have been a whole host of highlights over the last 15 years. John recalls the lead up to release of the first vintage of Plexus as being one of the most stressful and nerve racking moments in his life (even more so than finalising the Grange blend for 16 years). Certainly his wife Pat can attest to this, but the wines have been well received, and on the whole, the move to making small quantities of wines from special vineyards in the Barossa has been a great ‘second chapter.’ And there is plenty more to come…
The early 80’s Penfolds wine making crew, including Max Schubert, Don Ditter and a young John (sporting a very healthy Mo).
February 2005, front page of the Adelaide Advertiser and a great review to boot for the inaugural 2003 Plexus Shiraz Grenache Mourvedre
Our very first 100% varietal Mataro. Old vines. Tiny production.
Last Chance…. 2016 Annexus
Since we released the inaugural Annexus Mataro in February, it has just about all been snapped up. A 97 point review from James Halliday certainly doesn’t go astray, but we’d like to think that it’s what’s in the glass that counts, and those 115 year old Mataro vines are certainly singing at the moment. We’d like to offer our loyal mailing list customers the last opportunity to purchase our remaining twenty six-packs. Similarly we are down to the the last twenty six-packs of the 2016 Annexus Grenache, so if you haven’t tried the latest release 2016 we encourage you to take a look.
Here’s what James Halliday had to say about the 2016 Annexus Mataro:
97 Pts “The inaugural release, open-fermented and matured in French hogsheads (25% new) for 12 months. It’s a fool’s errand to nominate a drink-to date for this wine! Mataro is a notable age-worthy variety, and one made from low yielding 100+yo vines by a red wine master maker who held responsibility for making Grange for many years. The colour is beautiful, a deep, vibrant crimson, the bouquet complex and rich, the palate with layer upon layer of mainly black fruits that keep their feet on the throat of any tannins trying to make centre stage.” James Halliday Wine Companion February 2018
….and Lester Jesberg of Wine Wise in respect of the 2016 Annexus Grenache:
5 Stars “This is definitely not the typical Turkish delight Barossa grenache. The dark berry/raspberry fruit carries very pleasing complex notes that the French sometimes refer to as garrigue (herbs of Provence). The tannins are super-fine on the palate that is sumptuous but not heavy. A very special grenache.” Lester Jesberg Wine Wise June 2018