ATR Wines Hard Hill Road Mule Variation 2018

A blend of nebbiolo, tannat, petite sirah (durif) and shiraz from the A.T. Richardson vineyard in the Grampians region. The name Mule Variations comes from a Tom Waits album. "Waits has this gravelly, gruff voice that he is able to transform into beautiful melodies,' Adam Richardson says. "I have done something similar; I took varieties known for producing robustly structured wines and attempted to tame them to make a supple and elegant, full-bodied red.”

"Full-bodied and firmly-structured, deep and generous. A seriously smart and promising red."  Huon Hooke

"Inspired by the Tom Waits album of the same name, our Mule Variation is a blend of our most enigmatic red varieties: Nebbiolo, Tannat, Durif, and Shiraz. Like Waits' music, our Mule Variation is an unexpected take on an otherwise regular theme, creating a surprisingly harmonious yet subtly powerful wine.

Each variety was harvested at optimum flavour intensity, combined in one open-topped fermenter and vinified with wild and inoculated yeast. The slow and uninterrupted two-month fermentation created a uniquely complex structure and a massive array of flavours. The wine then rested in older 500L barrels for 12 months.

Deep garnet colour with lifted cooking spices, tar and floral notes on the nose. The palate is focused, intense with complex layers of blackberry, plums, and dark cherry. A full body wine with supple fine tannins and a plushness to the long finish. A generous, yet serious wine built to last."  ATR Wines

Expert reviews

"The 2017 and 2018 vintages of the Mule Variation are completely different beasts and when tasted side-by-side make for a fascinating contrast in styles. On first tasting, the much lighter bodied, aromatic, delicate and complex 2017 made the 2018 appear somewhat one dimensional. However after a few hours breathing the full-bodied 2018 blossomed into a veritable masterpiece, a beautifully formed mix of spicy, brooding dark fruits, pliant yet decisive tannins and refreshing acidity. There's an incredible depth of fruit flavour. What a wine! As to which is the better vintage, grab a bottle of both and make up your own mind!"  Nick Munday, Canterbury Wines - 97+ points and Special Value Wine  ★ (Tasted Dec 2022)

"Deep red/purple hue with a fragrant aroma, showcasing an array of herb and fruit characteristics, including angelica, star anise, violet and fresh garden herbs, as well as berry aromas. Blueberry uppermost. Full-bodied and firmly-structured, deep and generous, with a good solid backbone - but it can already be drunk and enjoyed, especially with food. It has the ferrous stoniness of Great Western red wines. A seriously smart and promising red. Drink: 2020–2040."  Huon Hooke, The Real Review - 95 points 

"A blend of nebbiolo, tannat, durif and shiraz in roughly equal proportions, made in a single open fermenter with wild and cultured yeast. Deeply coloured and full bodied, with persistent tannins. The bouquet is exotically spiced, almost into plum pudding, the palate adding black fruits to the equation. The name comes from the Tom Waits album of the same name. Drink by 2045."  James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion - 95 points 

Awards

Special Value Wine – Canterbury Wines  ★

About the mule variation

A blend of nebbiolo, tannat, petite sirah (durif) and shiraz from the A.T. Richardson vineyard in the Grampians region. The name Mule Variations comes from a Tom Waits album. "Waits has this gravelly, gruff voice that he is able to transform into beautiful melodies,' Adam Richardson says. "I have done something similar; I took varieties known for producing robustly structured wines and attempted to tame them to make a supple and elegant, full-bodied red.”

The following article was published in The Real Review, Oct 2020

Grampians winemaker Adam Richardson evidently likes Tom Waits's music, which is something we have in common. Life would have been poorer without Waits's albums Swordfishtrombones, Blue Valentine and Small Change.

Now Richardson has declared his love by naming a wine after the Tom Waits album Mule Variations. It's a little cryptic but bear with me.

Describing the origin of the album's title, Waits once said in an interview:

"My wife said, 'I didn't marry a man, I married a mule.' That's what she said. You know, it's like the Goldberg Variations. Only these are the mule variations… It's just one of those titles that stuck. I don't know what people are going to think Mule Variations are.” Etc, etc.

Apparently, the band played the song Get Behind The Mule, several times, as a raga, cha-cha, a capella and a Chinese version. They were nick-named the Mule Variations, and the name stuck.

Waits is a unique talent. There's no-one that sounds like him. Is winesmith Adam Richardson trying to tell us he aspires to that uniqueness?

The wine, ATR Hard Hill Road Mule Variation 2018, is more beautiful than the song, and equally poetic. It's a blend of what Richardson calls his most enigmatic red varieties: nebbiolo, tannat, petite sirah (durif) and shiraz, in roughly equal proportions.

"Like Waits's music, our Mule Variation is an unexpected take on an otherwise regular theme, creating a surprisingly harmonious yet subtly powerful wine.”

It's a glorious wine. I don't usually use multitudes of adjectives to describe a wine, but this one had me waxing on about an array of herb, spice and fruit characteristics, including angelica, star anise, violet and fresh garden herbs, as well as berry aromas – blueberry uppermost. It's a full-bodied, firmly structured wine, deep and generous, with a good solid backbone – but it can already be drunk and enjoyed, especially with food.

It's also a typical Great Western red: it has that curious ferrous stoniness of Great Western red wines. An intriguing blend and a seriously smart wine, with a bright future, if you can bear to cellar it for a while.

Otherwise, open the bottle and put the record on.

"Got to get behind the mule in the morning, and plough"  

About the winery

Winemaker Adam Richardson, born in Western Australia, has been making wine professionally since 1995. He held various senior international winemaking and management roles including chief winemaker for Treasury Wine Estates Americas and vice president of international winemaking for the major California-based The Wine Group. In these roles, Adam produced wines from almost every major wine appellation around the world and saw his name on the back label of about 70 million bottles of wine!

However Australia beckoned and after a 10-year search, he and his family selected the very special terroir of the Hard Hill Road Vineyard to call home and craft the A.T. Richardson brand (ATR Wines). They purchased the property in 2005 while they were still living in America, and planted their first blocks of Shiraz, Riesling and Durif in 2006. The first vintage of ATR wines was 2007, and they made just 200 dozen from a neighbour's vines. They spent the next 10 years improving the vineyards, planting more vines and new varieties (including Durif, Nebbiolo and Tannat), and in 2016 packed up the family and make the big move down under full time.

The close-planted vines at the Hard Hill Road Vineyard are nestled along a ridgeline that overlooks the Grampians ranges and are surrounded by a eucalypt forest. With its own special microclimate, the Hard Hill Road Vineyard's cool ripening conditions and naturally low-yielding vines produce wines with layers of intense flavours and a velvety structure. The challenging growing conditions, the unyielding soil, characterised by ironstone and quartz outcrops, and the low annual rainfall conspire to produce fruit of wonderful intensity and balance.

Their focus has been to create modern, cutting edge wines from the historic Grampians region, both from traditional varieties, as well as some lesser known varieties.  Adam's passion is to create wines that surprise the taster, but at the same time truly represent the vineyard in which they were grown. They are one of the few wine growers to plant Nebbiolo in the Grampians, and the only one to grow Tannat and Petite Sirah (also known as Durif). They use these varieties with a novel approach to create a series of unique and engaging red wine blends.