Three men, Mediterranean grapes and a whole lotta soul

When Tony Carapetis, Philippe Morin and Chris Taylor founded the Quattro Mano winery after years of working in and around wine, little did they know their lot would soon be highly awarded by Australia's top wine experts.

Mediterranean grape varieties grow vigorously in the warm climate of the Barossa Valley, so blending their juices was an easy decision for this team of winemakers, who admit a hedonic love of Old World wine styles.

Quattro Mano handcraft their progeny from small parcels of relatively unknown varieties including Tempranillo, Touriga, Tinto Cao and Cinsault.  Juice is extracted from these four varieties (some vines are 60 years old) and combined to form their 'Duende' blend.  Roughly translated from Spanish, 'Duende' means 'soul'.  

Still an Australian larrikin at heart - big and strong - the Duende blend embraces a light, classic Portuguese elegance.  Easy-drinking, round and supple - a gigantic range of fruit flavours are at once expressed in a familiar Barossan way.

Having raised the question of Quattro Mano's philosophy on oak barrel use, an answer was swiftly dealt to satisfy my curiosity.  It seems that Philippe Morin is the Director of French Oak Cooperage ('coopers' are the makers of those enormous oak barrels used in winemaking).  As if by grace, Philippe and his team find themselves in a unique position allowing them to carefully select and use barrels of only the highest quality.  It seems to have paid off, too.

Quattro Mano also make an exceptional wine based on the noble Spanish grape Tempranillo.  'La Reto', so they've named it, roughly boils down to mean 'The Challenge'. Fresh and racy, the youthful La Reto is a match made in heaven for grilled spatchcock.

Despite being relative newcomers to the Australian wine market, wine critic James Halliday rated both Quattro Mano wines a neat 91 points. A very good effort from a vineyard that will continue to improve with time. - Daniel Jess