Winemaker Notes
Fresh-raspberry, red-cherry and red-plum aromas with some subtle spice and dried-wood notes.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Cool sliced strawberries with orange peel and lemon rind aromas that follow through to a medium body with some tar and lead pencil to the black fruits on the palate. White pepper. Tart at the end. Sort of edgy.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The fruit for this 2021 Grenache is sourced from Block 2, and it harnesses all of the polish and density that comes so easily to Clare Valley Grenache. It is balanced by an infusion of cocoa powder tannins that lightly dust the fruit in the mouth. This is decidedly fresh, bloody, spiny and fine, with a nervy little flick through the finish. The length of flavor is deceptively long; do not mistake its delicacy for softness—it has drive, but it is just concealed in the folds of fruit. Nicely done, of course.
Grenache thrives in any warm, Mediterranean climate where ample sunlight allows its clusters to achieve full phenolic ripeness. While Grenache's birthplace is Spain (there called Garnacha), today it is more recognized as the key player in the red blends of the Southern Rhône, namely Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Côtes du Rhône and its villages. Somm Secret—The Italian island of Sardinia produces bold, rustic, single varietal Grenache (there called Cannonau). California, Washington and Australia have achieved found success with Grenache, both flying solo and in blends.
The Clare Valley is actually a series of narrow north to south valleys, each with a different soil type and slightly different weather patterns along their stretch. In the southern heartland between Watervale and Auburn, there is mainly a crumbled, red clay loam soil called terra rossa and cool breezes come in from Gulf St. Vincent. A few miles north, in Polish Hill, is soft, red loam over clay; westerlies blowing in from the Spencer Gulf influece this area's climate.
The differences in soil, elevation, degree of slope and weather enable the region to produce some of Australia’s finest, aromatic, spicy and lime-pithy Rieslings, as well as excellent Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec with ripe plummy fruit, good acid and big structure.
Clare Valley is an isolated farming country with a continental climate known for its warm and sunny days, followed by cool nights—perfect for wine grapes’ development of sugar and phenolic ripeness in conjunction with notable acidity levels.