About four years ago I was invited to a tasting for a new label that was just hitting the market called “Snake + Herring”. Truth be told after that tasting, I never thought I’d be buying wines from the label. The wines we tried on the day, a Cabernet and a Pinot, needed more depth and polish to them, they were too lean in the mouth, or they were too gritty and rugged. You could see where they were headed but it just wasn’t doing it for me, especially not at the $25 RRP. They were the kind of wines that you would drink, but then perhaps want to go to something else because, although the wine was quite acceptable, it just sort of left you wanting a bit more.
Then fast forward two years to where we got to try their 2012 Snake + Herring High + Dry Riesling, and this got me more interested in the label. This vintage had what I look for in a good Riesling; great acidity, lemon and lime notes with slate, and it needs to be dry and intense. This had all that in spades, and I grabbed a few to whack into our collection.
Snake and Herring are a duo compromised of Redmond Sweeny and winemaker Tony Davis. They have based themselves in WA’s Great Southern region, and take an interesting approach to picking their fruit from contract growers. Whilst they are quite systematic, perhaps even fanatical about sourcing excellent fruit for their wines, taking an approach where they may choose only a few rows from a certain vineyard, they have a quite whimsical approach to the naming of the wines. All wines are named after songs, and these are the kinds of songs that have “road trip mixed tape” written all over them, from Sonic Youth’s “Dirty Boots”, Ram Jam’s “Black Betty” right through to Aussie alternative rockers The Triffid’s “Wide Open Road”, or in the case of this Riesling its Radiohead’s “High + Dry”. I’m thinking that these guys would be interesting to spend some time with!
And that mixed tape has probably been needed for road trips on more than one occasion as that Great Southern area is a significant zone to cover. The region is WA’s coolest wine-growing area, sitting to the east-south-east of WA’s would famous Margaret River, it makes it just a little closer to the Antarctic. The area is broken into five sub-regions, all with relatively low rainfall, which means low yielding vines. This normally would be an issue when you are looking for volume, but not when you are looking for quality of fruit, as the low yield actually helps to drive the intensity of the fruit flavours. The soils can range from gravelly sandy loam to granite sandy loam to rich fertile loam, which can make finding the perfect vineyard a challenge.
To narrow the search area the duo concentrate on vineyards in the Mt Barker and Porongurup sub-regions, which supply all the fruit they need to create their three tiers of wines; their entry levels “Safari Series” encompassing six wines, their flagship “The Search Series” encompassing eight wines; and finally “The Distance” a range of three WA cabernet sauvignons that are built to age and go the distance.
The High + Dry Riesling fits into the “The Search Series”, and can be found mostly online or through your local independent bottleshop, excitingly the 2012 vintage is still available but more common is the 2013 which isn’t quite as cutting and acidic, which will appeal to a larger crowd. Both show bath salts, lemon and lime curd, and slate with excellent long finishes, and would easily be 93/94point wines, minus a point if you don’t enjoy that racy acidic style. RRP is $29, significantly cheaper online
It just goes to show that even if you don’t like a certain label, it’s always worthwhile going back and having a look at the next vintages, as they might just surprise you.
Another few to try:
Snake + Herring Hallelujah Chardonnay 2013 – fruit is from the Porongurup’s region which builds a more intense wine than its Corduroy sibling from Karridale. Plenty of white peach, nectarine, spice and grapefruit in the background, with a surprising burst of acidity in the finish. Great wine this, RRP $38
Snake + Herring Redemption Shiraz 2012 – while the 2013 is the current release its still the 2012 that’s the readily available wine, and gives a wine that is ready to go right now or can be put away in a cool dark lonely spot for a while to gain some age. It’s supple and smooth on the palate, dark black cherry and plums, liquorice and pepper flavours, and there’s notes in there that remind me of semi-dry bush walking tracks, those notes of earth and spice. I can’t quite tell if the spice is from the fruit or the oak, but there’s definitely a portion from each. Oak work is spot on, ripe tannins give it a long finish. RRP $24.
Snake + Herring Teardrop Riesling 2014 – hailing from a single vineyard in Mount Barker is this quite powerful drop. Highly perfumed, reminds me of my old nannas handbag that smell of talc, and compact and some weird lavender scent thingy that would be in there. There’s citrus and bright apple notes on the tongue, that marries well with the acidity, which ramps up on the finish. I really enjoyed this, a couple on the panel didn’t take to it as much as I did. RRP $29
