This wine is really one of my all time personal favourite, the wine which I fell in love with australian wines. Charles Melton’s Nine Popes was the first GSM blend in the Barossa Valley.
GSM means Grenache, Syrah (Shiraz in Australia) and Mourvedre (Mataro in Australia). This wine was made as Melton’s nod to Chateauneuf-du-Pape, hence the name Nine Pope which means Neufs Papes in french.
You can read more about Chateauneuf-du-Pape in my previous post about Chateau de Beaucastel’s wine.
Nine Popes is the most famous wine of Charles Melton, he is one of the main character in the Barossa who encouraged other wine growers to not to pull out their old vine Grenaches and Shirazes but blend them as in the Rhone Valley and make some powerful and fruity wines. It turned out as a great idea and now in Australia has its own style with more alcohol, silky tannin structure and lots of red and black fruits with pepper spicyness.
Nine Popes is made from old bush vine Grenache, some of them dates back as long as the 1880 plantings which gives approximetly the half of the blend and the other half being old vine Shirazes and a few percentage of old vine Mataro from the Eden Valley. The vineyards are not irrigated which leads to great concentration of flavours in the grapes.
I absolutely adore this wine for its flavour contrentration of plums, blueberry and sweet spices with smooth tannins. This was the first Syrah/Shiraz I have tasted with such a soft tannin and mouthfeel despite the high alcohol of usually 14-14,5 percent. The wine has a full body and a very long finish with capable of aging even 15 to 20 years.
My little anectode of that wine is while I was working in London, I had the chance to serve and suggest a wine for David Yates. If someone doesn’t know the name just google it and it will give you the director of the Harry Potter movies. As I am a big Harry Potter fan, I was really glad to take care of his wine service during dinner time and he was kind enough to give me the absolute freedom to chose the one with his dinner. I had chosen the Nine Popes, as he was dining with his wife and mother and were eating some steaks. I was glad that they really liked my choice and enjoyed the wine, I think as a sommelier and a Harry Potter fan, I couldn’t ask more!
Have you already tried Nine Popes? How did you like it?
Do you prefer australian GSM blends or Chateauneuf-du-Pape?
