Colour:
2023 Congruous is pale straw in colour.
Aroma:
The aroma abounds with ripe pear, butterscotch, nutty oak, brioche pastry, flint, and ginger spice.
Palate:
The palate is plush, medium in body. Ripe white stone fruits are complimented with generous but integrated oak. A creamy texture is nicely balanced with a mineral edge and light phenolics adding a cleansing gentle grip. The soft natural acidity hides in the back, letting the textural layers shine. It is very lengthy to finish. Congruous is a flavoursome textural white wine showcasing the beauty of Barossa pressings when crafted with pertinent winemaking artefact.
Recommended Drinking:
Congruous can be enjoyed now or over the next five to ten years.
Vintage 2023 has produced exceptional wines. It was the longest and latest on record, stretching from mid-March to early-May. The vines got off to a superb start with a wet and cool Spring providing plenty of sub-soil moisture for the growing season ahead. Summer brought typically average temperatures and was generally dry with occasional finite rain. The vines were in fantastic condition for slow and steady ripening into Autumn with its mild days, cool nights, and isolated light rain. Yields from 2023 are good and quality is excellent.
Congruous is from a Chenin Blanc vineyard and Semillon vineyard, planted on the Kalleske property at Moppa in 1988 and 1980 respectively. The vines are low yielding and soil is shallow sand with clay subsoil.
The Semillon grapes were harvested on March 14th and the Chenin Blanc was harvested March 30th. Each lot was destemmed, crushed, and pressed. The free-run juice was utilised for other wines, whilst the pressings each went to a separate tank for cold stabulation. Stabulation involved keeping the whole juice on the juice bottoms/lees for 9 days at a cold temperature and daily mixing to extract the good compounds contributing to aroma and mouthfeel. The juice then underwent wild yeast fermentation after which two thirds was filled to new Hungarian oak and the balance remained in stainless steel tanks. The entire wine went through natural malolactic fermentation and barrel lees stirring was employed adding further texture. After 8 months maturation the wine was blended and bottled.
91 Points
Some of this Barossa white blend went into (Hungarian) oak; most went into stainless steel. It’s grown organically.
This is a dry white wine with both texture and personality aplenty. It’s herbal, it’s smoky, it’s (burnt) buttery and it’s slipped with lemony, slatey, pear-like fruit. There’s almost more texture than flavour, and there’s certainly more personality than both. It needs food but this is a good drink; a touch sherried, smoky in a good way, herbs in the background, slipped with butter.
Campbell Mattinson, The Winefront, 21 June 2024