Marius 2007 Symphony Reviews
James Halliday – Wine Companion 2010:
Dense purple-crimson; has more concentration and depth than Simpatico, but is not overblown or extractive; comes from a small portion of the vineyard shared with Simpatico. Rating: 94 points Drink: 2010 – 2022
The Big Red Wine Book 2010:
Seamless – grape and oak flavours, acid and tannin all combine beautifully here. Look for notes of toast and wholemeal bread, blackberry and tar. It’s a combination that works to perfection. Excellent concentration too. Fresh, juicy length. A gutsy red, but a smooth talker. Rating: 94 points Drink: 2010 – 2016
Philip White:
Symphony makes Simpatico look like a callow rake with only one sly eye on the throne. This is big royalty: amongst the very best shiraz from one of Australia’s most revered shiraz regions. It is glowering yet mellow; stony-dry yet packed with simmering regal fruit concentrate; thick and blacksmithed on one hand; elegant and sword-slick on the other. And there’s a naughty sprinkle of something a bit like Guerlain’s Imperiale, which you can still buy but was first made for Napoleon, who tipped buckets of it over himself in battle. He hated the bouquet of ordure. His beautiful bottle has gold honeybees all over it. But Bony flunked, and this is still king. The king’s perfume in Symphony has a little more musk, and has never been available for commoners. So who are you? Rating: 94+++
Gay Walsh – Winefront:
2007 may well be considered a difficult vintage for McLaren Vale, but like every vintage, there are usually some very good wines made , and a small hand-tended vineyard where no effort is spared can make a world of difference too. And I’m sure that gruff-looking bearded vignerons such as Roger Pike would take exception to releasing lesser wines under their label (there’s nothing from 2009). I’ve never met him mind you..but he looks gruff.Blackberry and dark cherry with subtle spice and pepper notes and lightly malty creamy oak. It’s rich and dry at the same time with a well measured amount of grippy extract, a delightful ferrous character and ample dark fruit in which to bind them. Fresh yet savoury. One of those wines where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, if that makes any sense. Dry and long..and moreish. Rated : 93 Points Tasted : Mar10 Drink : 2010 – 2016
Marius 2007 Symposium Reviews
Campbell Mattinson – Big Red Wine Book 2009/10:
Mourvedre is an excellent variety to blend with shiraz – it adds personality without competing with it. Marius’s version is about the best going around. It takes a while to show itself properly so please give this a decant. It then tastes of cocoa, licorice and sweet, dark berries, its light earthiness and firm, dry tannins giving it a good, savoury foundation. It’s a pretty wine, winsome and fresh…and it finishes with a delicious juiciness. Rating: 93 points Drink: 2010 – 2016
Philip White:
The Spanish Queen arrives, reeking of olives, prunes, and Iberian ham with a little black and white fur still round its ankle. They built this whole damn railroad for her to come down here and stomp through the joint like this in her stumpy flamenco heels. Twenty or thirty years ago we all thought she’d be a once off, and prefer to withdraw to the Mediterranean forever, but she’s here every year now. The metal of her Mourv makes her normally butch Shiraz look slinky and feminine. Once departed, it smells like her train’s got real fresh damp coal. And we follow the pack through to the tiny press room, with all that dipstick Odorono and Bay Rum, and suddenly there’s only the two of you in a tiny Marveered booth. While her black tobacco breath is fulsome with the sweet red berries of the hedgerow and her scented décolletage, I can’t get my eyes off her toe cleavage. Rating: 93+++
James Halliday – Wine Companion 2010:
Symposium McLaren Vale Shiraz Mourvedre 2007: A 50/50 blend, the mourvedre making its presence felt in no uncertain way with strong, tarry black fruits to the fore; the tannins are, however, controlled. Rating: 91 Drink: To 2022
Marius 2007 Simpatico Reviews
Gary Walsh – Winefront:
Tasted for last year’s Big Red Wine Book and again this week, I reckon we jumped the gun a bit as it’s only just due for release. Simpatico, despite the score, is invariably my favourite wine from the Marius range because it has an unforced charm and drinkability that’s just, hmmm, so winning….and vaguely Spainish.
Mixed berries (boysenberry/blackberry mainly), spice and a delightful compote of gentleman’s club scents (tobacco, cedar, leather etc.), It’s medium bodied and particularly vinous – freshness mingles with some more earthy and baked flavours. Tannins are slightly rugged and dry but contribute a refreshing and pleasingly rustic character to the wine. And that’s pretty much it in a nutshell – a wine of character and integrity. Rated : 92 Points Tasted : Mar10 Drink : 2010 – 2016
Philip White:
Initially so moody and sullen one can’t imagine its dark provenance, this soon has the nostrils twitching with the slightly acrid reek of old royalty and stones. It grows the aroma of a bejeweled robe, too complex to wash, but well-aired, so the myriad perfumes worn in it over the decades are fragile, but present. Sympathetically. And then the fruits ooze: dense and tense at first; ever so gradually growing flesh; and then a new perfume arises and you need to drink it. It’s austere and withdrawing and in a tight royal sort of way its tannins are ermine and velvet. The acrid reek first sniffed finally makes sense. It’s the whiff of the coarse stony sediment the vineyard grows in: a red salad of stones from many epochs. And down the middle flows that black creek of fruits that seem far too dark and beautiful to grow in this Earth. Oh? It’s blood? He’s been stabbed? Misbehaving? Of course. Ten years in the Tower will teach him some manners. Tell him “Simpatico”. Rating: 93++
James Halliday – Wine Companion 2010:
The bouquet immediately shows dark chocolate notes typical of the region and which join with the savoury blackberry fruit of the palate; good handling of French oak. Rating: 92 points Drink: 2010-2017