Following Matt’s feature last month on the ground-breaking Cascabel winery in Australia’s McLaren Vale, we thought there’d be no better place to start our Featured Winery series of specials.

As with many obscure varietals or emerging wineries, it’s often only the most brave or adventurous of wine-drinkers that get to discover the hidden gems of the wine world. We think we’ve a few from Cascabel and we’ve knocked 15% off each of them to tempt some leaps of faith.

2008 McLaren Vale Tempranillo 3 months in old French barrels for better structure yet retains the fresh strawberry characters from young Tempranillo. “Light to medium bodied; spice, cherry and strawberry fruit to both bouquet and palate; fine slightly savoury tannins.” James Halliday, Australian Wine Companion, 89 points (2006 vintage). €12.33 on special.

2004 McLaren Vale Tipico (Grenache/Monastrell/Shiraz) Produced from mostly Viña Cascabel grown grapes, with a small addition of Grenache from a vineyard near the winery, only 6500 bottles are produced. “Savoury, spicy, leathery overtones to the black fruits; excellent texture and structure; fine-grained tannins, long finish”, James Halliday, 92 points. €13.60 on special.

2007 Eden Valley Riesling Single vineyard, 40+ year old vines capture clean steely and citrus characters. “Lively, tart, spicy lemon/lemon-rind aromas; excellent minerality and length to the pure bone-dry finish”
James Halliday, 94 points. €14.45 on special.

So go on, try something new - but do beware, your Yabbajabbawabba Creek Chardonnay might never taste the same again.

Cascabel is a winery that has intrigued me from day one for being that little bit different. Winemakers and owners Duncan Ferguson and Susana Fernandez use very traditional European wine making techniques in their Australian winery to create a fascinating blend of the Old World and New World.

Susana is originally from Madrid, where she did her studies before gaining experience working in wineries in Trentino and Sicily in Italy, Bordeaux in France and Yarra Valley in Australia. After meeting up with Duncan in Australia, she worked with him, making wine in France, Germany and New Zealand.

Duncan studied Oenology at Roseworthy (in South Australia) in the early 90’s and spent several years making wine in Clare Valley before heading off to the Rhône Valley in France, the Mosel region in Germany, and New Zealand.

With all that vast experience, they purchased 5 hectares in McLaren Vale in 1997, and started setting up the winery and vineyards. Cascabel had a definite Spanish influence from the start, with varieties like Tempranillo, Monastrell, Graciano, Grenache and Cariñena making up the majority of the plantings. Spending time in France also encouraged them to plant Roussanne, Viognier, Shiraz and Cinsault. There are plans to plant some Albariño grapes too (music to my ears).

Although not very common in Australia, McLaren Vale is producing top class vintages from the Tempranillo grape, which you’ll be very familiar with thanks to those reds of Rioja. A fairly typical McLaren Vale blend of Grenache, Monstrell and Shiraz is another one of Cascabels specialities, and they produce one of the best Riesling’s to come out of Australia, with grapes sourced from Eden Valley.

This Australian/Spanish alliance has been turning the heads of the worlds most famous wine critics. Jay Miller has scored many of their wines 90 points and above, and James Halliday described them as one of the ten dark horses of Australian wineries, placing them in his prestigious 5 star category. All bias aside, this is one of my top dogs (or horses) as well.

For a taste of Old & New, click here.