FOCUS ON... MICHAEL HALL
05/08/2021
Most of our wine-loving customers have probably heard of Decanter magazine. Now published in 90 countries, it can almost certainly claim to be the world’s most widely read and informative wine magazine.
While reading the August edition, we spotted a feature on the Adelaide Hills by Australian wine writer David Sly. With over 30 years of journalism, David is a voice to be trusted; and we were thrilled to spot some wines from one of favourite Aussie producers, Michael Hall, coming out with stellar reviews.
Now the full article - which is a very worthwhile read - is for Premium Decanter readers only (you can find it here ) but we thought we'd pull out some highlights from his tasting. This tasting included 187 Adelaide Hills wines before they narrowed it down to a shortlist of 26 (including three of Michael Hall's) so you can trust that thorough and proper research was done!
Michael Hall, Chardonnay, Piccadilly Valley, Adelaide Hills, South Australia 2017
“Lovely citrus blossom freshness on the nose. A big squeeze of citrus on entry has both sweet and tart notes, before a long, easy slide through a slender mid-palate reveals a romance of soft stone fruit, lemon and a squeeze of grapefruit. Poised like a ballet slipper en pointe. Lots of tingling savoury grip at the finish refuses to let go of such a tantalizing flavour marriage.” 97/100
Michael Hall, Pinot Noir, Lenswood, Adelaide Hills, South Australia 2017
“Dark aromas of dry vine cane and black earth, darkest cherry and some bramble. The palate, however, shows a pristine fragility of clean red cherry fruit – all pretty and delicate until dark clouds roll in at the end with a bite of acidity and firm, stalky tannins, though the cherry flavours persist. Seductive.” 96/100
We've heard on the grapevine (pun intended, if you'll forgive us) that Michael immediately sold out of all of his 2019 Pinot on the back of this review, so we would absolutely recommend you purchase some of these highly-commended wines without further ado.
We have been fans of Michael and his wines for a long time, well before these reviews. His wines are superb, and his journey to winemaker is an interesting one: while we love a multi-generational family winemaking tradition, it's also fascinating to see a more meandering path. Michael actually spent the first twenty years of his career in the jewel trade - specifically jewellery valuation - in London and later Switzerland, before deciding that his side passion in wine was what he truly wanted to be spending his time on.
At the age of 40 he took a leap of faith and travelled across the world to study wine science in Australia. He graduated top of his class, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Michael follows a 'slow wine' philosophy, which incorporates practices such as hand picking, wild yeasts, lees contact, barrel maturation and no filtration. He believes in doing less, and allowing the season and site to show themselves. The meticulousness required in his old line of work lends itself well to appreciating the nuances of wines and the small tweaks that can be the difference between a good wine, and a truly great one.
This philosophy and practice has certainly paid off - as evidenced by this most recent set of reviews. It's wonderful to see this sort of recognition, and we're sure that it will only grow. We really want you to try and enjoy these wines, which is why we're choosing Michael as our producer of the month and applying a 5% discount to the range for the month of August.
Don't delay, and pick yourself up a few bottles today. We stock the Chardonnay and the Pinot as reviewed in Decanter, as well as a wonderful Syrah.
Michael Hall wines on the Brompton website
More info on Michael's story!
