DRINK > Charles Melton – Nine Popes 2018 (and 2013)

The wines made by Charles (or Charlie) Melton and his team in the Barossa Valley are special. I clearly recall a visit to the winery with an American friend and colleague (I was introducing him to the wines for the first time) on tasting the Nine Popes he just stopped for a moment, sighed and uttered “oh my”.

That is the kind of response these wines provoke, there is something slightly ethereal that connects with the primal part of the brain and says “this wine is bloody good” or something to that effect. There is complexity, depth of flavours, spice, density and yet lightness – how? What crazy magic do they have to pack all that into a wine I just don’t know.I have been a fan of this wine for more than twenty years.

The first bottle I recall drinking was a generous gift from a friend in the late 1990s but Charles Melton Wines have been produced at the same winery on Krondorf Road in the Barossa (opposite Rockford famous for its ‘Basket Press Shiraz’) since 1984. When the vines were planted Grenache and Shiraz were not at all popular to Australian palates. But the block that Melton had acquired had some old bush grenache vines.

‘When I began tinkering with the wine I didn’t wake up one day and say “Rhone is the way to go”; it was nothing that far-sighted. I’d come to the valley in 1973, living in a bachelor shack with a regular parade of other young winemakers on Krondorf Road and liked the idea of buying a winery in the same area. It came with a neglected block of old bush grenache vines whose fruit went into sparkling base for the first couiple of years. Then John Stanford rang up looking for cuttings and he told me that my block of bush vine grenache behind the church was some of best in the country.

‘In 1988, the next year, I kept it separate and it made some fantastic wine. I then had all this grenache and I was wondering what the hell I could do with it, so I thought I’d put it out as a grenache shiraz dry red. I’d considered what grenache did best in the world and obviously I’d thought about the Rhone. I could never have sold the wine by labelled it as ‘Grenache Shiraz dry red’, so I had to come up with a scheme. To get people to understand that grenache does make classic long-living wine in a world context, I mangled up the Chateauneuf idea to get people to respect the blend in its early years. That’s how the whole Rhone thing kicked off for me.

Graeme Charlie Melton – as told to Jeremy Oliver on Wine Genius (winegenius.com)

Today the blending of Grenache with Shiraz and Mouvèdre is pretty common, there are lots and lots of entry level easy drinking GSM’s out there but the Nine Popes remains Australia’s best regarded. Much of the reason is that incredible dry farmed, old vine bush Grenache that provides so much perfume and flavour.

2018 Release

In the 2018 release the Grenache was mostly co-fermented with the Shiraz but they did blend some single varietal tanks as well. Wine making was a mix of whole bunch, de-stemmed and uncrushed fruit with a small batch of carbonic maceration Grenache. It was fermented cool and hand plunged before pressing to 50% new french oak barriques for 24 to 27 months on lees before bottling.

The 2018 blend is 51% grenache, 47% shiraz and 2% mouvèdre and the alcohol at 14.5%.

Vintage 2018 provided almost identical conditions for all three varieties that make up the Nine Popes. The Grenache was fully fragrant. The Shiraz balanced but rich and the Mataro had a small berried explosion of spice in each bunch. The characteristics musk of Grenache is evident at this stage, and will increase with age, alongside the dark plums of the Shiraz and the spicy/herb of Mataro. A rich perfumed, savoury GSM of weight and depth.

On tasting it is rich on the palate, a bright and vibrant wine with viscosity in the glass. There is spice on the nose cinnamon, cardamon and a hint of chocolate. On the palate the flavours extend with plum and leathery tannins. The finish is long and beautifully integrated something that stays with you.

96/100 points

2013 Release

Shiraz, grenache, mataro undergoing the most complex fermentation of all Charles Melton wines: hand-plunging, whole bunch fermentation, wild and cultured yeast, with a mix of single and co-fermentation, matured in French barriques (25% new) on lees for 28 months. A richly woven tapestry of spiced red and black fruits that stands apart from and above all but one or two Barossa Valley GSMs. It is wonderfully detailed and complex, yet achieves this with a lightness of foot and freshness of face.

James Halliday – Wine Companion June 2021 (97 Points)

This week knowing I was going to review the 2018 Nine Popes, I also opened a 2013 that I had in the wine fridge for a dinner party with friends. I brought it to room temperature and gave it two hours in the decanter. The result was we were drinking a wine of extraordinary proportions. Yes delicious, with structure and complexity that put all the other wines on our table to shame. The spice in the grenache was still strong, the structure and linear nature of the shiraz was still there along with the long lingering palate. But there was no knock you smack in the face, this wine was as elegant as a fine burgundy.

Sometimes you put a wine away and think I wonder if this will be worth drinking when I pull it out. Here was a wine absolutely beautiful and I am sure it still has years of bottle length if you are continuing to store some in your cellar. Unfortunately that was my last old bottle of Nine Popes – probably because it is such a reliable go to wine, I see it in the cellar and zoom – I go to it!

For me this wine was excellent totally in its prime 98/100 points.