Winemaker Notes
The wine encompasses deep ruby, purple hues scented with floral aromas of roses, violets, kirsch liqueur and spice box. Intense and full bodied in the mouth with flavors of black fruits, licorice and black truffles. Romas is concentrated with rich aromatics, exuberant fruit, spice flavors and amazing balance and a lingering finish.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2004 Grenache Old Vines Romas Vineyard is richer and darker than the Blewitt Springs Grenache of the same vintage tasted alongside. It has notes of black cherry and pomegranate, blackberry and licorice. The tannins, as with the aforementioned cuvée, are sleek and shapely and draw the flavor out over the long finish. It is dark and brooding, perhaps, but elegant and long as well. Sealed under natural cork.
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Wine Enthusiast
Cropped at a measly half ton per acre, this is Clarendon Hills’ top Grenache bottling. It’s tighter and denser than the other, more flamboyant offerings, needing time in the bottle to develop. For now, it’s loaded with wonderfully pure blackberry and cassis fruit, but it promises to develop more complexity over the years; try from 2008–2020. Long and softly tannic on the finish.
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Wine Spectator
Dense and peppery, but not heavy, with an expressive range of blackberry, cherry and pomegranate flavors that sail through the long, open-textured finish. A lovely spicy, peppery component lifts this Grenache's personality out of the ordinary. Best from 2008 through 2020. 500 cases imported.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The most backward, structured, tannic, and ageworthy of these offerings is always the Grenache Romas. The estate's flagship Grenache, it is fashioned from 86-year-old vines planted on ironstone soils at the highest elevation of the Blewitt Springs Vineyard. The 2004 Grenache Romas exhibits gorgeous notes of loamy soil, truffles, kirsch, spice box, blackberries, and licorice. This full-bodied, powerful, tannic 2004 will benefit from another 1-3 years of bottle age, and should age easily for 10-15+ years.
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.
Known for opulent red wines with intense power and concentration, McLaren Vale is home to perhaps the most “classic” style of Australian Shiraz. Vinified on its own or in Rhône Blends, these hot-climate wines are deeply colored and high in extract with signature hints of dark chocolate and licorice. Cabernet Sauvignon is also produced in a similar style.
Whites, often made from Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc tend to be opulent and full of tropical, stone and citrus fruit.