Pete Schell is crafting a flock of exciting whites from the Barossa. Lola is the original and, some would say, most multi-layered release. Semillon has taken the lead for the last few years and again plays a commanding role 2025. It’s joined by Grenache Gris and Clairette. The Semillon—a grape grown in the Barossa Valley since the 1850s—is sourced from 90+-year-old, low-yielding vines in Ebenezer. The Grenache Gris is estate fruit from Spinifex’s Dominion Vineyard, and the Clairette is from an elevated site in Rowland Flat on the valley's eastern side. The old-vine Semillon brings weight, Grenache Gris lends citrus and spice, and the late-ripening Clairette, with its excellent acid retention, provides a mouthwatering pop of freshness. 

Schell’s attention in the vineyards and a light touch in the shed have given us another exceptional release of this unconventional white. Each parcel was picked by hand and spent 2-4 hours on skins before being destemmed and pressed to a combination of stainless steel (Clairette and Semillon) and mature French oak (Grenache Gris). The wines spent six months on lees before being blended and bottled. A portion of the Semillon went through malolactic conversion. As with all the Spinifex whites, this will shine at the dining table. It’s as savoury as it is primary, with fleshy, medium-weight, citrus, spice and herb notes and a delicious, juicy texture

This is just the third release of Spinifex’s Chenin Blanc, but these vines have been around for almost a century. Pete and Magali have been working with the old bush-vine Grenache and Shiraz from this ancient site in the Angaston foothills for well over 10 years, all the while eyeing an opportunity with the small Chenin block on the property. They harvested their first crop in 2022, and the wine is now a tenured addition to the Spinifex portfolio.

The one-acre block is nestled at the highest point of the vineyard. The exact age of the vines is unknown, but it’s widely accepted that these gnarly, dry-grown vines are tipping the 90- to 100-year-old mark. Even in ideal growing conditions, a tonne of fruit is about the best yield you could hope for from the entire block. The Chenin holds natural breadth and intensity of flavour, so Pete picks early to capture natural freshness and preserve balance. The fruit is crushed without destemming and pressed to French oak for fermentation, followed by partial malolactic conversion and maturation for ten months in demi-muids. 

Old vine Ugni Blanc is one of the Barossa’s great, untapped resources, and after years of underwriting the Lola blend, since 2017 Pete Schell has finally given it its own house. This variety, known as Trebbiano in Italy, has been grown in the Barossa Valley since the 1850s — evidence enough of its suitability to grow in the local soils and local climate. 

This textural white is sourced from a tiny single vineyard in Ebeneezer planted sometime in the early 1900s. Planted within the Cinsault vines are a hundred or so Ugni Blanc vines of the same age which Spinifex harvests prior to picking the Cinsault (for the Papillon blend).  The fruit was hand-picked, destemmed and crushed and left on skins for 12 hours before pressing. Wild fermented and aged on lees in a seasoned French oak demi muid for nine months prior to bottling without filtration.        

Spinifex’s provençal-styled rosé is among the best this country offers, and 2025 is another stellar release. This year, the blend comprises Grenache (45%) and Mataro (55%) sourced from four dry-grown sites in Angaston, Ebenezer, Vine Vale and the southern end of the Bethany foothills. Soils vary across the sites from gravelly sand to red clay, and vine age ranges from 25 to 90 years. The (predominantly) bush vines are dry-grown.

Each batch spent two to six hours on skins before being pressed to tank for fermentation. A small portion of the wine went through malolactic conversion, and maturation took place on lees in tank for six months. The resulting wine offers the kind of energy and snappy, crunchy lines that were once the exclusive domain of the finest Provence rosés.

Pete Schell's Papillon was one of the first of the mod-Barossa wines to show that ripeness and depth of flavour needn’t come at the expense of freshness and vineyard clarity. All these years later it remains at the very top of its game. If anything, it has never been in better form.

Papillon is crafted from a range of old vine, dry grown Grenache (75%) and Cinsault (25%) vineyards, located in the east and far northern reaches of the Barossa Valley. The average age of these low yielding vines today sits at 90 years old! Each vineyard is hand harvested when just ripe to, In Schell’s words, "...ensure natural acids, freshness, spice and the fresher, edgier tannins are preserved".

It's a wine that would make a top southern Rhône producer proud. It sports a deliciously crunchy texture, cleansing acidity, savoury grip, and is somehow perfectly integrated with the wine’s generous fruit giving a delicious sense of balance. As always, the wine is naturally fermented with a portion of whole bunches and pulled out of large format old wood after six months with the same logic.

This 2024 Grenache Gris is only the second release from Spinifex's newest vineyard planting. Despite it's youth, the wine is abundantly complex and delicious, which should come as no surprise to those who know Pete and Magali's history in the south of France, which this grape sometimes calls home.

The duo planted a small plot of Grenache Gris on their Dominion vineyard in 2020, just a stone's throw from their winery in the heart of the Barossa. The young vines are trellised low to the ground in dainty rows which sit atop nutrient-poor soils of sand, gravel and clay. Pete thins the vines throughout the season to promote quality and intensity in the fruit. The young vines share this plot with some centurion heavyweights, including Grenache and Shiraz vine dating back to the early 1900's. Unintimidated, this nascent plot is ready to carve a path for Grenache Gris in a portfolio that lovingly pays homage to the traditions of both the Barossa and France's south.

Pete has worked with Grenache Gris for over 27 years. He is well-equipped to bring out the best in these fledgling vines—and it shows. These grapes were hand-harvested and rested on skins for 6-8 hours to bring out the rich flavours and gentle pithiness. For a textural lift, Pete fermented and aged the wine in large, old foudres where it spent 8 months on lees before assemblage and bottling. The resultant wine boasts a silky texture, with flavours redolent of orange blossoms and wild herbs on a plate of salted summer peaches. The wine finishes with a wave of salt-spray that leaves the drinker perpetually reaching for another sip.

In 2018, Pete and Magali purchased the mature (established 1945), four-hectare, dry-grown Rostein Vineyard in Eden’s Flaxman Valley, planted to roughly one-third Riesling and two-thirds Shiraz. The soils are lean, degraded granitic sands, and the vineyard sits at 475 to 495 metres above sea level. Two parcels of organically managed Riesling give rise to two wines. The Rostein Riesling is made from the 1945 vines, and this cuvée is made from the 1956 section.

The fruit was picked by hand, crushed and pressed to an equal mix of stainless-steel tanks and seasoned 1000-litre foudres for fermentation. To preserve the crisp, fresh appeal, there was no malolactic conversion, and the wines spent just four months maturing on lees before blending. In our opinion, this is one of Australia’s finest Rieslings, even if it is made in such small quantities that many never have the chance to taste it.

It seems there’s nothing Pete Schell can’t turn his hand to―elegant yet powerful Adelaide Hills Chardonnay included! It may not be the first variety you associate with Schell, but you should know his first Australian gig was at Mountadam Vineyards in the Eden Valley back when it was a benchmark cool-climate Chardonnay producer. So, you could say Chardonnay is in his blood. From the 2021 season, fruit for the Spinifex Chardonnay is sourced from the Morialta Vineyard in Norton Summit, located on the western edge of the Adelaide Hills. The low-yielding, northeast-facing block is home to 22-year-old vines that run north to south. All the farming is done by hand, from pruning and bunch-thinning to harvest.

The bunches were picked by hand in the cool of the morning and chilled overnight, then fully destemmed and crushed. The fruit macerated for four hours before being gently pressed to barrel (30% new oak) for fermentation, followed by partial malolactic conversion and 10 months’ maturation with occasional stirring. It’s terrifically polished and layered Chardonnay, jam-packed with full-throttle, complex flavour balanced beautifully by vivid tension and mouthwatering acid cut. Drink and be happy.

The Luxe Rosé made its debut in 2009 and, since then, has only been made in vintages Pete and Magali deem exceptional for the style. In the last ten years, Luxe has been released just four times in very small quantities, perhaps explaining this wine’s cult-like status. Favouring Mediterranean varieties that have a proven track record in the Barossa and the south of France, this year’s blend combines fruit from three vineyards. The Grenache (51%) is drawn from an ancient, gravelly/sandy block in Bethany; the Mataro (40%) from a 30-year-old bush vine block on Stonegarden's terra rossa soils; and younger-vine Cinsault (9%) from the gravel-shot red clays of southern Ebenezer. All three sites are old-school farmed, with few to no inputs or irrigation, and generate very low yields.
In contrast to previous years, Schell is pushing a franker expression of fruit and has pared back his approach in the cellar. Each parcel saw between four and six hours of skin contact before fermentation and six months of maturation on lees in stainless steel tanks. Stylistically different it may be, but the 2023 Luxe holds all the complex detail, depth and perfumed power of its predecessors, now in a more elegant package. Lifted red fruits, vibrant floral and spice notes and a pulsating mineral stoniness flow through the fleshy, satin-like texture to a moreish, berry-soaked close. It’s a stunner!

This highland vineyard in the northwest of the Barossa Valley has been producing exceptional Shiraz, Grenache and Mataro for Spinifex since 2005. Although the exact age of the vineyard is unknown, it is thought to be at least 80 years old. For the last 40 years, it has been managed organically by the grower who grew up on the block and clearly has the utmost respect for his vines. 

Again, Pete Schell’s mastery of balance is on full display here. How does he do it? Tamed Barossa power is countered by pitch-perfect weight, refined structure and acidity and a lingering, flavour-drenched finish. Some 30% bunches add to the attractive spice, and long aging in French puncheons and barriques has given long, pliant tannins to frame the fantastic quality of pure, juicy black fruit. This is stellar stuff from Spinifex—modern Barossa at its very finest.

La Maline is Spinifex’s purest and most finely structured expression of Barossa/Eden Shiraz. As with the 2021, the extended growing season and comparatively cool conditions in 2022 provided fruit with the style, elegance and restraint so vital to this great wine’s DNA. This is a roughly equal split between Pete and Magali’s own Rostein Vineyard in Eden Valley and Materne Vineyard in Moppa in the Barossa Valley.

Rostein was planted in the 1950s and sits high in the valley at close to 500 metres. Materne was planted in the 1920s. Like Rostein, this vineyard is organically dry farmed by hand. The fruit fermented with indigenous yeasts in small, open-top stainless-steel tanks over 12 to 35 days. Pete added a bucket of Viognier halfway through the ferment to lend lift and complexity to the wine. Maturation was in French oak barriques and 700-litre barrels (approximately 35% new) on light lees for 22 months before blending and bottling. 

This is killer Shiraz. Highly aromatic and savoury, its muscular frame is underscored by a sense of agility and lifted perfume. Dark blue fruits, warm brown spice and earthy notes float like a butterfly, while the svelte structure, stylish power and sweetly enveloping close stings like a bee. It’s all class.

This is the inaugural release of the Sol Solice Grenache—and what a start! This wine will represent the finest Spinifex Grenache of a given vintage. In 2022 the fruit was sourced from two vineyards: the Rostein Vineyard in the Eden Valley (64%); and a vineyard in Light Pass in the heart of the Barossa Valley. Both vineyards are managed organically by Pete and Magali. The three hectares of Grenache in the Rostein Vineyard were planted in 2018, and according to Pete, at 490 metres above sea level, it’s the highest altitude Grenache block in South Australia. The Light Pass site is a dry-grown vineyard with 60-year-old vines.

Vinification was similar with both blocks. Fruit was hand-picked, fully destemmed and naturally fermented in stainless steel and old wood. Fermentation lasted eight days with minimal pump-overs. After pressing, the wine matured in seasoned puncheons and demi-muids for 10 months before it was bottled without fining or filtration. 

A sign of things to come, this first release is pure magic. It’s knee-deep in scents of berries, florals, earth and spice, while the palate is intensely flavoured, with ample texture, refreshing tannin and brightness all striking a flawless balance. Finishing with a beautifully long, tapered and perfumed close, this refined and layered Grenache over-delivers in every department. Southern Rhône, eat your heart out.