Marius 2006 Symposium Reviews
James Halliday – 2009 Australian Wine Companion:
Symposium McLaren Vale Shiraz Mourvedre 2006: A luscious, but not jammy array of black fruits interwoven with dark chocolate and ripe tannins; good line, texture and length; impressive blend. Rating 94 points. Drink to: 2021
Campbell Mattinson of Winefront Monthly:
Marius Symposium Shiraz Mourvedre 2006 ($30) screwcap: There’s a natural complexity here that sets it apart. It’s a super wine. It’s ripped with blue and black berried fruit flavour and has been nicely – and appropriately – doused in soft, chocolatey oak. The tannins even have a leathery minerality to them, a rarity in McLaren Vale reds. I’m a big fan of this. It’s got lots of flavour, lots of interest, and lots of warm flavoursome length. Drink: 2008-2015. 94 points.
Gary Walsh of Winorama:
Marius ‘Symposium’ Shiraz Mourvedre 2006: Purple red. Aromas of sweet blue and black fruits, Black Forest Gâteau, vanilla, violet, earth, new leather and some spicy oak. A fascinating mix of deep rich fruit and more earthy ferrous characters. On the palate full bodied with dark fruit, earth, spice and chocolate flavours. Rich and decadent yet powerful and muscular – a gladiator relaxing at an orgy. Firm powdery tannins and a little warm alcohol. It has great physical presence yet retains a fine sense of balance and never looks clumsy. Enormous length of flavour. A striking and highly individual wine that will cellar magnificently.Rated: 94 Points Tasted : Sep07
Alcohol : 14.7%
Price : $30
Closure : Screwcap
Drink : 2009 – 2015+
Philip White – The Independent Weekly – 22nd March 2008:
Marius Symposium McLaren Vale Shiraz Mourvèdre 2006: This wine was impenetrable on its release. A few extra months have made a small crack in that iron visage, and now we can see some of the fragrant, sweet, healthy prune and mulberry of the shiraz peering through the cast armour of the mourvedre, which has traditionally been called mataro in Australia. Because of its capacity to handle heat and drought, this latter grape should be much more widely planted, but its tough, dense nature makes it easy for sceptics to miss the wondrous florals and spices it has to offer if properly matured and aired. This one’s delicious. 93+++ points.
The 2009 Penguin Good Australian Wine Guide – Nick Stock
Wow, this is a dark modern wine with plenty of brooding mourvedre fruits, shiraz’s dark spiced plums and savoury/earthy regional notes below. Plenty of spice and richness, all balanced out neatly, plush even tannins, rich black fruit flavours ride on supple savoury tannins, finishing intense, long and fine. 93 points.
Selector magazine – Winter 2009:
The kind of wine that deserves to be poured into the biggest glass you have. Nice clip of oak, nice sweet, musky, cherry-plummed flavour. Subtle leatheriness/tarriness and a clean, refreshing, satisfying finish. A gorgeous example of a new-ish blend.
“Just as the Australian food landscape was once dominated by the tastes of the English and the French – before Italian, Greek, various Asian and Middle-Eastern influences steadily made Australia’s food landscape both richer and better – Australian wine too has expanded its range of flavours and influences, but for all its quirks the aim still is to make wine that tastes, simply, darn good. Maybe it’ll taste spicier or more savoury or drier or even lighter – but the aim is, according to the wines that various winemakers recommended, that wine not become too clever for itself, and that deliciousness become paramount.
The perfect example? Marius Symposium Shiraz Mourvedre 2006 – chosen by Michael Fragos, the head winemaker at Chapel Hill. Here’s a wine that is a bit different, because of its spicy, leathery, violet-like flavours, and yet it still manages to be supple and friendly and blessedly ripe – in short, a fabulous drink. It’s easy to say why Fragos chose it – it screams its McLaren Vale origins, and yet it’s both distinct and delicious at the same time. When assessing the State of Play of Australian wine, a wine like this makes you see clearly that financial times may well be tough, but there’s nothing at all wrong with the health of Australian wine quality. The word thrilling comes to mind. No wonder it’s so easy to have such fun with Aussie red wine now.” - Campbell Mattinson – Selector Magazine – May 2009
Marius 2006 Simpatico Reviews
Philip White:
$25; 14.5% alcohol; screw cap; 93+++ points Like the vineyards halfway up the Hermitage hill in the south Rhone, this one has round river stones, but it’s halfway up the piedmont of the Willunga escarpment near McLaren Vale. It smells just plain friggin gorgeous. It’s rude and sassy with whole messes of fresh, vibrant, black and blue fruits; really neat fired oak, and an acrid, nose-itching edge that can only come from the country in which it grew, and the plethora of yeasts and microbial troops that live there. It has a British Racing Green aroma: crows in the pines; a worn-out E-type decaying in the tractor shed, wondering whether it’ll go to the chooks or a restorateur. It’s slender and tight at first sip, with a sharp carbon base. But given the chance to properly slither in and unwind, it teases like that serpent that suckered Eve. And as my aboriginal friends say, bugger the apple — they woulda eaten the snake every time. The finish is all the Bible black things mentioned above and more, with wicked juice and deadly nightshade tannins and really stony, slithery acidity. Twenty years, please. Or grainy pecorino. With a snake.
James Halliday – winecompanion.com.au – May 2009:
A powerful, full-bodied wine which abounds with black fruits, licorice and bitter chocolate; while initially confronting, the appeal grows on retasting. Screwcap.14.5% alc. Rating 94 - Drink 2021 – Date Tasted Dec 08
Winefront Double Take -August 2008
CAMPBELL MATTINSON: The Marius name has fast become synonymous with reliable quality. The grapes for this wine are hand-picked (and not all at once: numerous passes are made in an attempt to pick all grapes at their optimum), basket pressed, fermented and then matured in French and American oak hogsheads. The resultant wine is soft, medium-bodied, deliciously ripe and attractive, with even-tempered blackberry and raspberry flavours. There’s very little sign of oak flavour here and a silken set of tannins. It should start drinking at its best in about two years time. Drink: 2010-2014. 91 points.
GARY WALSH: There’s no Symphony this year as all the fruit went into Simpatico, and it goes without saying (almost) that I agree with Mattinson, that yes, Marius is a producer that’s fast become synonymous with quality, but I’d add that they are also one that shows a bit of extra flair too. The wines offer that little something extra, although I’m not quite sure exactly what it is. This is a touch ferrous and has something hard to describe – a sort of stone and earth character over the raspberry and blackberry fruit – a little bit of Priorat meets the Vales – and there’s a chunk of chocolate and new leather in there too. Subtle oak allows the fruit to express itself clearly. In the mouth medium to full bodied and loaded with ripe berry fruit, chocolate and again some of those ferrous stone and earth qualities. Lovely tannins, soft and fine grained, and they contribute to the nutty toothsome texture and pop up again on the finish to do a little dusting. There’s a touch of warmth too, but it’s not disruptive, and the longer the wine is open the better it looks. Decant it for an hour if drinking now or better still give it a couple more years to show itself to best advantage. An authentic wine that offers plenty more interest than many of its peers. ABV: 14.5% Drink: 2010-2016. 92+ points.
The 2009 Penguin Good Australian Wine Guide – Nick Stock
The name says it all – this is about easy drinking and it shows, well, simpatico between the region and the variety. Ripe dark berries and plum fruits, gently supportive tannins that don’t interrupt the flow of flavour or compromise the soft mouth-feel. 91 points