$65.00
“A chiastic wine’; everything is so marvellously proportioned and cross-referenced. Excellent, superb even. Certainly without equal in this country. This should be one of Australia’s most collected wines.” David Murray, Le Tuffeau
Released August 2026
VINTAGE CONDITIONS
A mild and European season in 2023 produced perfumed and highly structural wines with excellent aging potential. The distinct diurnal range of the sub-alpine Mayford vineyard in Porepunkah provides ideal conditions for ripening Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon, the two heroes of this unique blend, with Malbec in a minor, yet major role, adding aromatic precision and fresh minerality.
WINEMAKING & TASTING NOTES
Small parcels of low-cropping Tempranillo were hand-picked from the ridge of the oldest Tempranillo block in mid-March, and the Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec some three weeks later. Each batch was chilled and cold soaked before undergoing natural yeast fermentation in small open fermenters, then basket pressed, just prior to dryness, to finish fermentation and MLF in oak.
Nominally allocated at pressing for the Ovens Crossing blend, these components were put to French oak barriques- 50% new – for 11 months and then blended and returned to older oak for a further 13 months. A further 18 months of bottle maturation allowed the oak, fruit and tannins to weave their way into balance for a late winter 2026 release.
“This is a gorgeous wine with a long future ahead of it. Tannin management is elite here. It tastes of violets and blueberries, ripe plums and chocolate, leather and a bouquet garni of herbs, tobacco, pepper and earth. The tannin here builds as it breathes, and once it’s up and running it comes like a wave, running and rumbling through the complex flavour of the palate. It’s classic and distinctive at once; the whole wine is. The word ‘layered’ is over-used but this is genuinely a layered wine. The length of the finish too is seriously good.”
95 Points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
Drink 2027–2040
Bottled February 2025
Mayford Ovens Crossing is made in limited volumes from exceptional vintages.
