Koltz The Pagan Shiraz 2014

"The Koltz wines are a sort all their own."  Philip White

Koltz The Pagan Shiraz is one of my favourite wines. Winemaker Mark Day selects the best shiraz from his vineyards in the Blewitt Springs area and dries them on racks for six to seven weeks prior to crushing and fermentation. The process is similar to that used in Valpolicella to produce Amarone. The result is always spectacular - a superb full-bodied Australian Shiraz, albeit with a distinctly Italian feel. 

"The really impressive part of the performance for me is how you taste this wine with your entire chemo-sensory system. I could taste it with the back of my throat, and smell it with the back of my nose. Not an uncommon thing with a single malt scotch, but this is not a monster wine, and in fact it's quite refined with the flavour coming in waves. Not shore break waves either, deep ocean waves that slowly fade to the distance minutes later. It's just so impeccably balanced that nothing stands out. It's actually a hard wine to describe well, yes it's big, and yes it's a sipping wine, but it just gently rocks you, and reminds you life is very, very good."  Gavin Scarman

The shrivelled, concentrated grapes produced by the drying process yield an incredibly sumptuous and sexy shiraz that has layers and layers of rich, dark berry fruits and a wonderful silky mouthfeel and structure and balance. The more you look at the wine, the more it impresses, revealing a rich tapestry of secondary flavours – prunes, rum, raisins, dark chocolate and tar. Sensational. 

Expert reviews

"For those of you who haven't tried a Pagan before, do yourself a favour and treat yourself to a bottle. McLaren Vale meets Italy; a shiraz made in the Amarone style. Hedonistic, yes, a powerful palate awash with layers of rich fruit. Sumptuous, yes, with the wonderful silky mouthfeel 'Amarone' wines possess. Mouth-watering, yes!"  Nick Munday, Canterbury Wines - 96+ points and Special Value Wine  ★ 

"Suspense be damned, I rated it Excellent+++. I'm always a little hesitant to rate a wine that highly, it leaves no room if I think a future vintage/wine is better. What I can say, with less hesitation, is that the 2014 Pagan leaves me unable to imagine how a wine could actually be any better. Apart from coming in a Methuselah, and being in my hands, of course.

I tried this over 3 days. Initially, in Pagan terms, I thought the fruit was perhaps a wee bit lighter, and with more noticeable mouth watering delicious morello like acidity, than previous incarnations. This was just during the brief tuning period, where a few hours of air allowed what was already a high quality instrument, to come into complete harmonic resonance and really start to sing.

The really impressive part of the performance for me is how you taste this wine with your entire chemo-sensory system. I could taste it with the back of my throat, and smell it with the back of my nose. Not an uncommon thing with a single malt scotch, but this is not a monster wine, and in fact it's quite refined with the flavour coming in waves. Not shore break waves either, deep ocean waves that slowly fade to the distance minutes later.

Ironstone, cedar, star anise and a hint of cloves by day 3. A wonderful earthy savoury character around a balanced complex fruit core, the morello acid is still there but blending in so well you really only find it bobbing up occasionally in those big flavour waves. If I didn't know it was Amarone style I'm not sure I would have picked it as such, it's just so impeccably balanced that nothing stands out. It's actually a hard wine to describe well, yes it's big, and yes it's a sipping wine, but it just gently rocks you, and reminds you life is very, very good.

Oh, a few notes on the production for the curious. Dried for 6 weeks in the winery, 100% estate Bewitt Springs fruit, then 21 days ferment, finally aged in 2nd and 3rd use French oak for 22 months."  Gavin Scarman - Excellent +++

Awards

Special Value Wine – Canterbury Wines  ★

About the pagan

Koltz winemaker Mark Day smells his Amarone Shiraz  (photo by Kate Elmes)

"In ’03 we hardly did anything. In 04 we dropped two bins off the front of the forklift and the Ducati was sitting there in four inches of Amarone."

That was Mark Day reflecting on life as a winemaker. The 'we' includes his partner, the revered wine scientist Anna 'Koltz' Koltunow. The 'amarone' is a winemaking technique named with the Italian word for bitter or sharp. More precisely, the technique is called appassimento, and the wines are called passito, from appisire, 'to dry'.

Nowdays, in northern Italy, Amarone is actually an appellation of the Valpolicella district, restricted to wines made by appassimento. Mark goes here annually to make wine. And as the wet Ducati could testify, he also makes it here, in the scrub and sand and ironstone of Blewett Springs in the McLaren Vale district.

Last week he presented all his Koltz The Pagan passito vintages, from 03 to a barrel sample of 09. And a dandy pagan ritual it was.

"A lot of this is about texture", he murmured into his glass. "We pick the Shiraz early so it starts with a lot of acid, and that gets concentrated more as the grapes shrivel. So they’re quite acidic. But the texture just gets me."

The bunches are picked carefully onto drying trays which are stacked in a humidity-controlled Ducati shed. A close eye must be kept for the six or seven week process: you don’t want too much overt shrivel, and bunches which develop moulds or rots are removed.

"It’s all local Shiraz off the sand", he says, "but I always add a little bit of Adelaide Hills Cabernet."

The grapes are finally crushed and put into open fermenters with some freshly-picked must, which is of course sweeter, with less acid. Off it goes. Long, slow ferments – 25 days – gentle basket pressing, and presto: amarone!

The Pagan 03 said it all, really. It smelled like a spinache and ricotta salad with figs. There was a glowering composty base tone, too, but those greens are still fresh and zippy, and the viscosity’s just perfect. 04 was more organized and fresh, with chocolate crème caramel flesh over a mess of moss and silage, all the nightshade leaves, juniper, Marveer, and dried sweet figs and dates. Jeez it was good.

And on we gurgled, through the astonishing 05 with its blackpowder and smoked figs, and impenetrable intensity and poise, to the triumph of the night (sorry Ducati, but the Poms make motorcycles, too) in the 08. This majestic compote of ground-up gun barrels (Weatherby) roast capsicum, and Ditters' best dried fruit mix (prunes, apples, pears) is a confounding glory of a drink that will cellar brilliantly. Or chug-a-lug with a slab of good aged parmigiano reggiano.

One thing is certain: as we moved into the younger vintages, these gunmetal characters increased, and the wines were tighter. They’re obviously better with a few years dungeon.

Mark also opened one of his favourite Italians, Tommaso Bussola’s BG Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 07 ($150). Made mainly from the thick-skinned Corvina variety, the smaller-berried Rondinella, and perhaps some Molinara grapes, this wine seemed simpler and much less tannic than The Pagans ($55). The Koltz wines are a sort all their own.

We also tasted passito style wines from other Australian producers, but these lacked the determined intensity of the Shiraz grown on those Semaphore sands of Blewett Springs, and the Maslin Sands ironstone that lies beneath.

Speaking iron, the iron horse has changed. The Duke’s been replaced by a snazzy Moto Guzzi, which Mark reckons is a sign that he’s getting older. He hasn’t washed it in amarone. Yet. But it’s surrounded by racks of Shiraz, doing its neat appisire. Maybe the Moto Guzzi wines will be softer.

That’d be a pity.

The text above comes from an article by Philip White which appeared in The Independent Weekly

About the winery

Koltz is a small fifty tonne boutique winery located within the elite Blewitt Springs appellation of McLaren Vale that specialise in Shiraz and Shiraz blends. Koltz began as a small wine label in 1995 when winemaker Mark Day and Anna Koltunow made their first wine using grapes off a small but very special block of Shiraz vines.

Prior to establishing Koltz, Mark Day had worked as a winemaker for Maxwell Wines and Wirra Wirra in McLaren Vale, and as a consultant in Italy and France for six consecutive European vintages.

The wines are estate grown and hand crafted and made to traditional methods. The operation is very much hands on. Vintage at Blewitt Springs is generally two to four weeks later than most of McLaren Vale. The vineyards are just under 200 metres above sea level and lie on sandy soils over ironstone gravel.

The sandy soils over ironstone make distinctive wines; the Shiraz is elegant with fine silky tannins,  great length and lovely mouth feel. The Shiraz is open fermented and basket pressed and portions are treated to an extended maceration for up to fifty days, depending on season and ripeness. The finished wine is matured in a selection of seasoned and new French oak barrels for up to twenty months.

Koltz make two very special wines, The Pagan and The Wizard.  Fruit for The Pagan is dried on racks for six to seven weeks prior to crushing and fermentation. The process is similar to that used in Valpolicella to produce Amarone. The Wizard is made in the traditional Ripasso method used in Valpolicella, where the wine is fermented with the skins and lees left over from making Amarone – in this case from making the Koltz Pagan Shiraz.

Tragically, Mark Day passed away in 2021 after a short illness. Life without a Pagan or a Wizard will not be the same.