At around midday on the first Sunday in January, Fraser McKinley hit send on an email to Sami-Odi’s allocation list.
“Our online ordering system is now open,” he wrote, “and if this year’s wines appeal, I’d recommend that you place your order and transfer your funds at your nearest convenience. Whilst 2023 was a generous growing season throughout much of South Australia, there are only minimal quantities available and regrettably many will miss out.
“It would be most appreciated if you could please refrain from requesting additional bottles to your allocation below,” he adds. “We kindly request that you do not forward this offer onto others please.”
Easily one of the sweetest and most affable winemakers in the country, it must pain Fraser to apply these limits. But with the Barossa winery's allocation list fully subscribed at 1550 members, and a waiting list now at a staggering 31,000, he doesn’t have a choice.
There are three wines in the Sami-Odi range: the Hoffmann Dallwitz syrah; a multi-vintage blend called Little Wine; and, since 2020, the Our Hill syrah. The first two are made with fruit from legendary Barossa grower Adrian Hoffman's ancient Ebenezer vineyard. Only 500 cases, at most, are made of each.
The Our Hill comes from Fraser’s own Angaston vineyard, which he and wife Andy planted in 2016 with shiraz cuttings propagated from some of the Barossa’s best growers. Just 108 cases were released this year, from the 2023 vintage, but that volume is expected to double from the 2024 vintage onwards thanks to 2021 plantings that have started to fruit. “Next year we’ll likely have two small bottlings of Our Hill,” Fraser says. “One from the 2024 harvest and one multi-vintage blend from 2025, 2024, 2023, 2021 and 2020.”
All three Sami-Odi wines are 100 per cent syrah, and their differences are testament to the influence of site and season. While the cool 2023 vintage produced wines that were suppler and gentler overall, Fraser was compelled to include the following caveat in his description of the Our Hill in his email to members: “A word of note here; this wine speaks in whispers and sports a hypothetical feel of grenache meets pinot noir with a nebbiolo rinse. It is not a wine of impact, more one of mood and texture," he wrote. "If density and richness appeal please seek the two wines above.”
Below are Dave Brookes' reviews of the latest releases. And remember, like last year, a handful of retailers around the country (including Halliday taster Mike Bennie's Sydney-based P&V) will have limited quantities of Sami-Odi wines available from February.
2023 Sami-Odi Hoffman Dallwitz Syrah
Fraser McKinley has nailed the cooler 2023 vintage with his Hoffmann Dallwitz release. It's essential; as in it presents itself as a pure essence of northern Barossa syrah with the characteristic Ebenezer compression and a sense of detail that only comes with an obsession for site expression and the craft of gentle winemaking. It's concentrated and presents with impressive fruit density, but there's a beautiful energy and freshness to its form. As always, the fruit is pure and perfectly poised; black cherry, blackberry, boysenberry and blue fruits. The cut of spice is deep and exotic, floral flecks and raspberry pip lift, a glimpse of dried herbs, dried meats and violets in the rear-view mirror with an earthen overtone with compact, powdery tannins as the wine fades out. Superb. 98 points.
Sami-Odi Little Wine #14
The 'Little Wine' is Fraser's un-vintaged assemblage of syrah from the ancient vines of the Hoffmann's Dallwitz vineyard. For those who want to embrace their inner wine geek, this year's breakdown is as follows: 37/32/12/8/4/3/1/2/1% 2024/2023/2022/2021/2020/2019/2017/2018/2016 & 2015. Deep, dark Doris plum, black cherry, boysenberry and blueberry fruits with glimpses of raspberry pip top-notes. Deeply cut with exotic spice, turned earth, tapenade, wild strawberry, anise, chocolate-dipped cherries and dried flowers. There's a nice plumpness to the fruit as it fans out on the palate, all pure and harmonious; the interplay of fine acidity and tight, fine, sandy tannin catching the eye and drawing the drinker's attention and sense of wonder. Detailed, fresh and wonderful drinking as always and a clear example of a wine where the whole is more than the sum of its parts. 97 points.
2023 Sami-Odi Our Hill Syrah
When I last visited Fraser, my parting vision was of him walking up and down the slope of this vineyard behind his home with a brush-cutter. It's a beautiful little slope, leaning down towards the south-west, and I have fond memories of my old dog Dudley tearing up and down that slope with Frase and Andrea's dog Bunny when it used to be an olive grove. It's a little finer aromatically, it's gait brisker, and there's a little more granite to the chew of its tannin; still deep with pure black cherry, dark plum, spice, dried herb-encrusted meats and pressed flowers. The fourth release and getting better every year. 95 points.
