The tasting notes for the three Bekkers McLaren Vale/Clarendon wines featured this week will, in a limited sense, speak for themselves. Which is as well, because the Bekkers story can’t be told in a mere 330 words of my weekly column. It is a story that starts in 1842 in Clarendon, and continues to this day. Nothing came easily for the first grape growers in any and every region. They wrote history as they worked each day in a continent marked more by drought and heat than anything else. Terra nullius indeed, distance measured of tens or thousands of metres equally meaningful in the gold rush decades of the 19th century.
There is one date that stands out beyond all others in the intervening 171 years: July 2020, the day Emmanuelle and Toby Bekkers purchased the 20ha Clarendon vineyard first planted all those years ago. Having lived and worked in McLaren Vale for 25 years, the pair was fully aware that notwithstanding the potential of the vineyard, successive attempts to tame it all failed right up until the last plantings in the 1990s, which were promptly abandoned for seven years. So it was that the Bekkers purchased a vineyard that hadn’t been pruned for years, was infested with blackberries, and with erratic high density plantings.
Resurrection work began immediately, and the 2022 vintage (currently in barrel) left no one in doubt about the site nor the special skills the Bekkers have accumulated. Since the outset they have made regular trips back to Europe refining their knowledge of the Old World, and the opportunities its technical developments there and in the New World. They bring together the viticultural expertise of Toby and the winemaking of Emmanuelle, both with multiple tertiary degrees. The focus is on quality, not quantity, subtlety, not power.
Clarendon is tucked away in the coolest, elevated, north-east corner of McLaren Vale. Its signature differentiates itself from the main sweep of the region, the latter bringing silky fragrance and generosity of flavour to the table. Chacun à son goût.
2021 Bekkers Single Vineyard Selection McLaren Vale Clarendon Syrah
Only 800 bottles were made, with 52% whole bunch, 48% berries, machine sorted, matured in two French puncheons, one new, for 16 months. A wine that defies the laws of gravity, superfine and intense, fresh, pure and mouth-watering; silky tannins provide the chorus.
99 points, drink to 2048, 14.5% alc, Screwcap, $300
2021 Bekkers McLaren Vale Syrah Grenache
It’s the depth of colour that draws the intake of breath, and setting the pace of a wine that, through some vinous magic, simultaneously offers elegance and power. Plum, blackberry and black cherry provide the fruit flavours, welded together on the lingering finish.
98 points, drink to 2038, 14% alc, Screwcap, $90
2021 Bekkers McLaren Vale Grenache
The red berry, cherry and a whisper of dark chocolate define the bouquet and palate of a totally delicious wine. All the flavours of the palate are those promised by the bouquet. It’s only 14% and medium-bodied, the superb balance guarantees a wine that can be drunk tonight and all steps of the 30 years to follow.
98 points, drink to 2038, 14% alc, Screwcap, $90
