Emmanuelle and Toby Bekkers are the perfect wine couple - both highly credentialed and experienced. With extraordinary attention to detail, the wines they are producing are simply outstanding.
“… a new Australian classic in the making.” Max Allen.
“… benchmarks in modern Australian winemaking.” James Halliday.
I’ve admired this dynamic winemaking couple’s venture, Bekkers Wine, for several years and they continue to be lauded, most notably with a feature article in one of the world’s most acclaimed wine magazines - The World of Fine Wine.
Emmanuelle was born in beautiful Bandol, in the south of France. She has a degree in biology (biochemistry) from the University of Marseille and a degree in Oenology from the University of Montpellier. She’s worked in several wineries, large and small, in both France (Burgundy, Bordeaux and Languedoc) and Australia (McLaren Vale & Langhorne Creek). Emmanuelle also has her own wine consulting business, Oenologie Requin.
Toby is a gun in the vineyard. He has his own viticultural consulting business, working in both Australia (particularly McLaren Vale) and France. He has an honours degree in Applied Science and Agriculture from the Uni of Adelaide and these days is one of the most sought after consultants, internationally recognised as a leading exponent of organic and biodynamic viticulture.
Back in 1995 Emmanuelle came to Australia to work vintage at Tintara with Steve Pannell, where Toby was doing vineyard samplings. She fell in love with McLaren Vale, and Toby. These days the couple still to-and-fro between France, but are settled by the beach at Aldinga in McLaren Vale, with their two children and dog Smudge.
Specialising in McLaren Vale’s two stars, syrah and grenache, Bekkers’ first vintage was in 2011. They only make 3 wines in Australia; a grenache, a syrah and a syrah grenache. Emmanuelle also makes a premier cru Chablis in France, but that’s for another time.
The Bekkers winemaking showcases Toby’s viticultural abilities and Emmanuelle’s winemaking precision, bringing to life wines that possess the generosity for which McLaren Vale is renowned, but more importantly, refined fragrance and texture.
It’s unusual to find a winery turning out so few wines, but it just shows the intense focus these two have on producing the best. Toby explains: “Nothing we have seen overseas has diminished our conviction that McLaren Vale is capable of producing unique, world-class wines and we aim to be an emblem for the region.” And with the kind of wines they’re producing they’ll surely achieve this.
In a time when more and more fruit is picked by machine, the Bekkers choose to pick by hand. They also manually sort the fruit to get rid of any shrivelled, raisiny grapes. Sorting is something they do a lot of at expensive estates in Bordeaux where Emmanuelle has worked, but it’s not common in Australia, especially in McLaren Vale. Even though it costs more, Emmanuelle told me she likes to sort to avoid unwanted jammy characters in the wine, as well as to allow “the more delicate, fresh fruit and spice flavours to blossom.” Selection is crucial to the process - Emmanuelle maintains “what you leave behind is just as important as what you take.”
Colour, tannins and much of the flavour of red wine comes from the grape skins, so how winemakers deal with them is crucial. I find it’s also the key to texture in red wines. Emmanuelle leaves around 20% of the grapes as whole bunches, the other 80% she destems but does not crush. All the grapes are then cold-soaked, which involves cooling the grapes to around 8 degrees for between 4-8 days, depending on which of the 3 wines it is. The cool temperature ensures no oxidation or fermentation occurs in the meantime and the result is a gentle extraction of tannin and colour, as well brighter colour and more delicate flavours.
Huon Hooke reviews Bekkers McLaren Vale Syrah 2019.
The fruit is allowed to warm up, with fermentation occurring spontaneously using the ambient wild/natural yeasts. The fermenting tanks have cooling systems and are tweaked to ensure the ferment never runs over 25 degrees. By comparison, some winemakers run their red ferments as hot as 30-32 degrees which, while it ensures good extraction of colour and flavour, also risks harshness. By contrast, Bekkers ferments are long, cool and gentle. During the ferment the skins floating on top are gently plunged by hand (with the grenache), or pumped over (with the syrah), where the juice is pumped from the bottom of the fermenting tank and sprayed over the top of the floating skins. Both techniques ensure gentle extraction of colour and tannin. After ferment, the wines are aged for varying periods in combinations of old and new, large format oak. There is minimal use of sulphur and no filtration. The wines are sealed with stelvin closures (screw caps).
The result of all this work is incredible texture, and the resulting smoothness on the palate is a real Bekkers signature. Emmanuelle told me about a Japanese sommelier who described the 3 reds as silk (grenache), satin (syrah grenache), and velvet (syrah). This wannabe haberdasher’s description succinctly captures their common thread – their unbelievable smoothness, as well as the difference - their weight.
“We believe that the textural element holds the key to fine wine.” Emmanuelle and Toby.
I’m pleased to offer Bekkers’ flagship wine, their syrah, the equal of wines twice the price. But take note - it’s only made in tiny quantities.
Bekkers McLaren Vale Syrah 2019
Let me say straight up, this is simply a stunning wine.
This year the fruit was sourced from three vineyards and was cold soaked for 5 days prior to the beginning of a natural ferment (ie. no yeast added). A cool, gentle fermentation minimised over-extraction, after which the wine was basket pressed to oak, which was a mixture of new (51%) and older (49%) French oak puncheons (500L). It was aged on fine lees with minimal sulphur additions. Bottled December 2020, sans filtration. The finished wine is 14% alcohol and sealed with screwcap.
This will knock your socks off with its wonderful velvety texture and smooth mouthfeel. Dense, dark and elegantly powerful. Long, complex and lingering flavours of plum, pomegranate and aniseed. But I’m really taken with the phenomenal viscosity and smoothness. Yum.
This wine was included in James Halliday’s Top 100 Wines for 2022 and with good reason. He scored it 98 points, which was the highest scored shiraz.
“Wine style objective: Soft, fine, silky texture. Dark/red fruit flavour profile accompanied by attractive spice. Purposefully made to avoid overt, syrupy concentration or oversue of oak. Captures McLaren Vale intensity; tempered by silky texture, elegance and spice characters.” Winemaker’s notes.
“The colour is deep and still youthful, three-plus years along its journey. The complex bouquet is so multifaceted it’s a challenge to describe. Game, Eastern spices, black cherry and licorice move backwards and forwards across the palate and bouquet. Aboriginal dot painting stuff.” 98 points, James Halliday’s Wine Companion Top 100 Wines for 2022.
“Medium deep crimson. Intense blackberry, dark plum, mocha, herb garden aromas with aniseed notes. Generous and silky smooth with abundant blackberry, dark plum, mulberry fruits, fine chocolaty textures, some minerally graphite notes and integrated vanilla/ mocha oak complexity. Finishes chocolaty firm with persistent dark brambly fruit notes. Lovely density, vim and vigour. Should develop more complexity and volume with age. 48% Clarendon, 52% Syrah. Drink Now - 2035.” 97 points, Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal.
“The 2019 Syrah leads with peppered deli meat, cloves, pink peppercorn, blackberry, mulberry, raspberry coulis and Szechuan peppercorn on the nose. In the mouth, the flavors are incredibly densely packed, but it is not heavy. In terms of balance and finesse, this has that in spades too. Very impressive. Elegance 101.”
96+ points, Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate.
“You know things are going well when a winemaker limits sales of its flagship to 12 bottles per person. My advice - get in quick for this wine which is a beautifully sophisticated McLaren Vale shiraz. A strong follow-up after the 2018 vintage and again showcases masterful tannin management. It’s a real trademark of the Bekkers wines with beautiful tannin integration almost hiding the structure away behind a wall of fruit. But it’s there which, with immaculate balance, will allow this wine to sing for many years to come. Great purple almost opaque colour and immediately showcases powerful yet complex fruit with layers of roasted meat, meat stock, soy sauce, star anise plus more traditional blackberry, mulberry and tight grain French oak. It’s then dry, juicy and bright, some cherry pip flavours before again descending into more savoury, seamless fruits before a long, balanced and fleshy finish. It’s delicious already but also has plenty of ageing potential.” 96 points, Wine Pilot.
“Deep, youthfully bright red/purple colour, with a spicy, youthful shiraz aroma, seemingly cooler-grown than it is, but also concentrated and deep. The flavour penetrates very deep and is augmented by ample soft, fleshy tannins. Texturally lovely and beautifully balanced. It’s already enjoyable to drink, although it undoubtedly has a bright future. A more elegant rendition of this wine.”
95 points, Huon Hooke, The Real Review (a good score from him).
Be sure to let it open up in your glass to really appreciate its beautiful texture.
A world class wine.
I can offer it for $120 a bottle.
