Three excellent new-release Rouleur 2022 wines

As I first mentioned on Monday, Matt East dropped by the compound recently to show his latest Rouleur releases. And you know what? They looked bloody good, yet again. In fact, I could rinse and repeat much of my post from last June as the sentiments don’t change (just my favourite wines).

Importantly, despite the ‘shitty yields’ of 2022 (in the Yarra at least), the prices here have shifted by just $2 (from $34 to $36 a bottle on the website). It’s not even keeping up with inflation. At the risk of hitting new broken record heights, these are such well-priced wines, given the fruit quality and hands-on winemaking behind the label.

With fruit from the Yarra & McLaren Vale, the style here has always had two shades to it – a bit of warm vs cool. But there’s an overarching house style that Matt East ascribes to which you’d always describe as understated. Low oak, fine tannins, and restraint rather than ostentatious flavours.

Notably, while Matt’s Yarra Valley Chardonnay & Pinot Noir wines get the most love, it was the other bits I enjoyed the most in this bracket.

In particular, the Rouleur Strawberry Fields Pinot Meunier 2022 is a delicious wine. Sourced from Claire Burder’s vineyard at Whitlands in the heights of the King Valley, it’s this wonderfully expressive drink with undeniable strawberry fruit (more strawberry than red apple, which is unusual for high altitude Meunier) with this dancing beauty and perfection of palate weight. It’s not a big wine, but effortless flavour and vitality. I enjoyed it more than the 2022 Pinot Noir & 2022 Macclesfield Pinot Noir too.

From here, the next step was the new Rouleur Grenache 2022. Again sourced from the Whaite family vineyard (that is only 15 years old, incidentally) at Blewitt Springs, this is a bright, lucid, rhubarb and red fruited McLaren Vale Grenache with just a little earth at the edges to remind you of the Vale character. Last vintage it looked Pinot-like, but in 2022 there’s more weight and more grunt. It’s such a congruent wine, too – it just feels like how I’d want light touch Grenache to be.

Finally, while it’s a crowded market for McLaren Vale Shiraz, it’s impossible to miss the charms of the mid-weight, blue-fruited Rouleur Shiraz 2022. You can’t shake the idea that this is McLaren Vale Shiraz made by a Pinot winemaker, and it just helps deliver a wonderfully even, moderate, yet powerful red that, interestingly, had me thinking about Eden Valley Shiraz this vintage. Easily the most broad-shouldered wine in the Rouleut range (despite the tannic outlier Cobber Carbonic Yarra Valley Cabernet Shiraz), this is the wine to win hearts and minds.