Paper Eagle certainly isn’t that hard to find when you get to McLaren Vale.  Their cellar door lies smack bang on the main street of town, in the middle of the retail district.  I think that they have the right idea when it comes to getting their wine into the customers hands i.e. if the tourists can’t make it out to the vineyard bring the vineyard to the tourist.  I guess this idea is not new, anyone who has been to Burgundy or Saint Emillion can attest to that, but it is novel just the same. 

But what a great cellar door it is, open and bright with just the right amount of rustic charm and sophisticated marketing.  If you visit Paper Eagle you will likely find Katy or Matt Rechner behind the bar, running their business from the front of house.  Matt is Australian and Katy is a British, (they actually met travelling through Israel as backpackers) and they run Paper Eagle as a team.  Matt looks after the winemaking/vineyard side of the business and Katy looks after the business side of the business…as well as Matt. 

Matt has been making wine for many years in Australia and overseas, beginning first as a cellar hand and working his way up the totem pole to the big chief position, via a lot of grit and determination.  They both had a vision to start their own winery and Matt believed he could use all his years of experience to craft his award winning wines under his own brand for once.  This courageous decision paid off almost immediately with their 2004 Paper Eagle Shiraz winning the coveted Australian Shiraz Challenge.  This launched their business to new heights and precipitated an expansion to new export and domestic markets.  Now they are a substantial producer making 30 000 cases annually with the Paper Eagle wines acting as flagship.

Not only are the Rechners very successful winemakers, marketers and entrepreneurs, they are two of the nicest people I have ever met in this industry.  I just can’t for the life of me understand why we have never seen them in Canada.  I guess we will now. 

Wines from this Winery:

Paper Eagle “Linchpin” Shiraz 2007

 

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Paper Eagle “Linchpin” Shiraz 2007

 

Hold the phone!  Super dark colour with incredible intensity coming from the glass.  Great depth and strength of bouquet with eucalypt, blueberries, mocha, dusty oak and violets.  The palate follows the intensity of bouquet with excellent viscosity, showing richly layered primary fruits and rancio nuances.  The texture and complexity of flavours is impressive, somehow managing to avoid over extraction or excess alcohol warmth.  Definitely a “wow wine” the finest example I have seen thus far for the Mclaren Vale 2007 vintage.

96 points
 

 

Ekhidna Rosé 2008

 

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Ekhidna Rosé 2008

 

The colour is vibrant and shows good depth for rosé, with almost ruby intensity and pink hues.  The nose is quite powerful without being one dimensional.  The bouquet shows strawberries, raspberries, vanilla ice cream and white pepper spiciness.  The palate is mouthfilling and slightly off dry, it is rich with lots of primary fruit and a clean crisp finish.  This is an excellent example of Shiraz in the saigne method.  I’m not sure why you don’t see more of this obvious style for the region.

91 points.