This isn’t as peppery as the grenache but it’s yet loaded with spice. Dry, roasted spices, some eucalypt, some cloves, spark out from dark cherry, char, meat, leather and asphalt-like characters. It’s a heart of darkness with bright blood pumping through. Tannin is grainy, almost gritty, and earthen, and in keeping with the tone of the fruit. Long life ahead for this one.

93+ points, The Wine Front (October 2022)

Very deep bright purple-red hue; the bouquet spicy, rusty iron, as well as chocolate-coated cherries, medium-full bodied and firm with a good solid backbone of tannin, and an earthy peppery, graphite kind of mineral note, savoury and concentrated, powerful and penetrating through a long palate. Superb, and it has potential to improve further with time.

95 points, The Real Review (September 2022)

2021 is the first vintage in which Swinney has bottled a varietal Mourvèdre, and personally, I couldn't be happier. Mourvèdre has the potential to be an elegant, seductive variety—in the right hands, of course. So, here we have the 2021 Mourvèdre. The nose leads with a tart cherry character. It was made with 22% whole bunches in the ferment. It's a style call, but this has to be one of the most gorgeous varietal Mourvèdres in the country. Drinkability is high—the wine has minerality, focus, poise, precision and clarity. It has Mourvèdre tannins without being pushy or intrusive. Curiously, there's pink grapefruit on the nose (both fresh and attractive), and there is a broodiness and clarity. This has fine tannin and is so lovely. I've been waiting for them to do a straight Mourvèdre for years. And here it is.

96 points, Wine Advocate (April 2023)

If winelovers were all a bit stunned when Swinney started offering amazing Grenache from Frankland River, they might be positively gobsmacked when they see what they are doing with Mourvèdre (including their Rosé). This is from dry grown, bush vines from their Wilson’s Pool vineyard, which was planted back in the early 2000’s. The fruit was berry sorted into a single stainless steel fermenter by way of gravity. 22% whole bunches were incorporated and wild fermentation was used. The wine then spent eleven days on skins before it was pressed to fine-grained, large format, seasoned French oak for eleven months maturation on skins. Deep red/garnet colour. The nose is all exotic spices, florals, cherries, raspberries, black olives and warm handfuls of freshly turned earth. One can almost envisage Lang Hancock back in the day when he first grabbed a handful of that red soil. There is an appealing plushness to all this. A wine of mid-length, with fine acidity, there is real grip here too. Leave it for three or four years to allow it to fully come together and reveal its glories at their best. Then drink it over the next six to ten years.

94 points, Wine Pilot (November 2022)

From prized mourvèdre vines planted in the lauded Swinney vineyard in Frankland River. It sees 100% whole bunches in the wild ferment. Aged in seasoned, large-format French oak barrels. Highly aromatic perfume of game meat, dried cherry, white pepper, alpine herbs and violets. Supple on the palate, more game meat here, too, ditto the cherry, but dark and vibrant to taste. A dusting of fine clove and cinnamon, a faint lick of mintiness in the mix. Tannins wrap the wine beautifully, a silty web that grows gently into a chew. This hits the matrix of quality fruit and adroit winemaking – the resulting wine is excellent, delicious and should cellar gracefully to medium term. Bingo.

96 points, Wine Companion (December 2022)