The Auswine Forum

McLaren Vale Scarce Earth Project (SEP) has been around more than 10 years, so I was lucky to acquire two Kangarilla SEP 2010 in this neck of the woods. Let us see how it has evolved after some 10 years.
The wine shows itself inky black with purple/red rim. Very leggy on the side, very full bodied. the nose opens full of blackberries twisted with meaty/bacon bits. The licorice/anise follows with dark chocolate, soy and hints of garrigue. The first sip is a shocker. It is intense, full with flavours of berries, plum, charcoal and bitter chocolate. the tannins are soft and the finish decently long. Lovely and chewy wine to sip for the rest of the evening.
Question: Has anybody tasted any SEP Shiraz lately? This is by far the most intense Shiraz I had this year! Will give the second one a test drive in about 5 years.

What a coincidence. I decanted a Coriole Scarce Earth Project 2013 a couple of hours ago, and will post later today.

Waiters Friend wrote:What a coincidence. I decanted a Coriole Scarce Earth Project 2013 a couple of hours ago, and will post later today.

Its a shame they never really followed through with this..I think they did some real marketing one year and that's about it. Or at least, that's all I saw of it.

Polymer wrote:

Waiters Friend wrote:What a coincidence. I decanted a Coriole Scarce Earth Project 2013 a couple of hours ago, and will post later today.

Its a shame they never really followed through with this..I think they did some real marketing one year and that's about it. Or at least, that's all I saw of it.

When I visited McLaren Vale in 2016, the 2013 and a few 2014 reds were being sold, and the Scarce Earth Project seemed to be in full swing in McLaren Vale at that time. Olivers Taranga even had an approximately 2m high core sample that showed the strata of their Scarce Earth.

Waiters Friend wrote:

Polymer wrote:

Waiters Friend wrote:What a coincidence. I decanted a Coriole Scarce Earth Project 2013 a couple of hours ago, and will post later today.

Its a shame they never really followed through with this..I think they did some real marketing one year and that's about it. Or at least, that's all I saw of it.

When I visited McLaren Vale in 2016, the 2013 and a few 2014 reds were being sold, and the Scarce Earth Project seemed to be in full swing in McLaren Vale at that time. Olivers Taranga even had an approximately 2m high core sample that showed the strata of their Scarce Earth.

Sorry, I should've been more specific..by real marketing I mean in other areas. I don't know if they're doing it in McLaren Vale, sounds like they still might but not doing it elsewhere..they don't even have a website..and it looks like participation is well down from the early days....

The last Scarce Earth vintage was 2015. I think not enough interest. I loved the concept, and still have quite a few wines from different wineries and vintages stashed away.

I think the main drawback was a potential proliferation of labels which could be confusing and made it difficult to know what to buy.

For example, D'arenberg suddenly had like 10 single vineyard Shiraz wines all going for $100 and several single vineyard Grenache for the same.
I managed to try quite a few in Singapore where they were being flogged off for like S$60. Fine wines. Very monolithic, needing a long time to show their best or not ... So interesting as an intellectual exercise but at that pricing not very helpful for the consumer.

All wines that got the "Scarce Earth" label had to go before a tasting panel of judges to approve their ability. Oak had to be used and at least 2 years old, from what I remember. I liked the lower oak regime to the wines. Some are brilliant.
The d'Arenberg single vineyard shiraz wines were over the top, too many, too expensive, but why not!