Grenache delivers what Pinot promises…
A celebration of the dogged stubbornness of pioneering
McLaren Vale families, who persisted with their plots of
Grenache, when others implored them to turn their land
to other pursuits. From very old bush vines each vineyard
eighty years plus, we make a contemporary Grenache
with fragrance, succulence and fine boned structure (a
little like our favourite Pinots!!). Viva la Grenache!

Creation
Hand harvested from a suite of four very old bush vine vineyards, picked
over 5 separate dates and separated by 3 weeks to provide layered
complexity and varying degrees of ripeness. The three neighbouring Blewitt
Springs vineyards, planted in 1930, 1939, and 1940 respectively
contributed 58% of the blend, with the balance coming from the oldest
portion of the Smart vineyard in Clarendon planted in 1920.
We love the combination of these two expressions of McLaren Vale
Grenache - the spicy, fine, pinot-esque expression that hails from the rocky
loams and altitude of Clarendon, and the ever so slightly darker, more
structured characteristics we see from the deep white sands of Blewitt
Springs. Separated into 9 separate wild ferments, hand plunged and
pumped over they varied in whole-bunch inclusion from a couple of destemmed whole berry ferments up to 100%, and time on skins from 1 to 5
weeks, all building necessary tannin and structure. We then pressed each
parcel to a mixture of old oak puncheons and concrete eggs. As always
maturation was undertaken on fine lees to build mid palate texture and for
the reductive benefit to counter Grenache’s predisposition to oxidation.
With 7 months only in large old oak to allow the blend to come together
and bottled young before any meaningful oak influence can be seen.
Composition
Showing old vine intensity without heaviness, fragrant cranberry and wild
cherry fruit lift, violets, earth, and garrigue herbs: the palate is pure with
calming depth and intensity, but kept necessarily fresh by grainy tannins
and a bright line of natural acid.
Consumption
Ideal serving temperature is 16 °C, we suggest you try with your local
version of the food of the many homes Grenache – the various cures of
black pig from Spain, the toasted wild yeast bread and smashed tomato of
the Priorat, and the smoked veal sausages of the Rhone Valley. Cool
cellaring between 5 years to 8 years will be rewarded.
VARIETY: 100% GRENACHE
ALCOHOL: 14.5%
BOTTLED: DECEMBER 2023