Alkina
Alkina is a Mattinson Ten Star Winery.
Only the best of Australia’s best are ranked as a Mattinson Ten Star Winery.
It was late by the time we made it to the Alkina winery, in the Barossa. I had hayfever, it had been a long day, and I'd started on the beers already. Writer Dave Brookes and me walked out into the sun, and through the long grass, to check out the soil and the vibe of this beautiful Greenock vineyard. It's all good fun until someone loses an eye, as they say. I'd not really heard of this winery, though I had heard of Dan Coward, who manages and markets the Alkina wines, and I was soon to learn that winemaker Amelia Nolan is about three times smarter than your average bear. It was lovely out there in the vineyard. There were insects, a fluffy dog named Archie, life all around. The beer tasted better than it usually did. There was the promise of a barbecue, and I loves me a barbecue. Whip through the wines and then get into the charred meats, I thought.
And then I tasted my first ever Alkina grenache, matured in concrete only, and then the second, and then the third. And I thought, Hang On. I thought I was just here for the barbecue. Hang on. Hang on.
And then, suddenly, I wanted to run straight back out through the long green grass and into the sun and into one of the soil pits they've been digging into the Alkina vineyards, to find exactly what kind of schist-strewn gold they're sitting on. Because this is a Barossa producer on the up and into the gold if ever there was one. My gosh. I liked these wines so much that I woke up early the next morning, ahead of a busy itinerary, and drove back out to that beautiful Greenock land, just to peer over the fence one more time, to watch the dawning of a day there, the light just starting to tickle at them there leaves.
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The Alkina winery at Greenock in the Barossa Valley is one of the most intriguing wineries in Australia right now. We’re looking at grenache of the highest order here, graded specifically to site and more importantly to soil composition. Stay tuned. Alkina is at the pointy end of the new Australian wine order.
Alkina Mattinson Ten Star Winery file: here.
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Campbell Mattinson is the former Chief Editor of Halliday, and is the founder of The Winefront. He’s authored six books, has won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year award twice, and has been a journalist since 1987. He is also a commercial photographer.