Winemaker Notes
The 2018 Torbreck Hillside Grenache is a crimson color. Lifted red fruit aromas such as red currants, pomegranate and aniseed. Hints of earth and clove balances the savory tones. Medium-bodied, textural with long acid spine balanced by tight and long yet refined tannins.
Professional Ratings
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Australian Wine Companion
From a single estate vineyard of dry-grown bush vines in Lyndoch, planted 1949. Matured 18 months in French oak foudre. Signature Barossa grenache, carefully executed in a strong season. Elegant red berries and spice are accurate and captivating, but it's the supple mouthfeel and intricate texture that really stand out here. Perfectly ripe, polished red cherry liqueur is impeccably set off by the creaminess of large oak foudres. Tannins sit so comfortably that you'd forget they were here at all, yet they hold a very long finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
2018 was warm and dry, and it preceded a very dry and hot 2019 and super-low-yielding 2020 (due to winds during flowering). The red wines produced in this 2018 vintage were excellent, and off the back of the wet 2017 vintage, the ground was well prepared for the season ahead. So here, the 2018 Hillside Vineyard Grenache is lighter in color than the vintages either side of it and aromatically leads with roasted meat and pomegranate molasses. It is quite singular in this regard. On the plate, the wine is fresh and fine although savory, as is typically the case with this cuvée. It is a gorgeous wine. 14.5% alcohol.
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James Suckling
This is a parcel of old-vine (1948), dry-grown bush vines and matured as a single 4,500-liter foudre with bright, red florals and raspberries, as well as redcurrants and a little blood orange. The palate has the same blood-orange character and delivers a fresh, elemental and succulent expression of very pure, old-vine grenache. Languid tannins.
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Wine Enthusiast
This vintage of Torbreck's singe-vineyard Grenache is a charming wine. The fruit is ripe, like grape and strawberry jelly. It's appealing but offers few secondary notes to add complexity. Thankfully, the layers come on the palate where firmly structured tannins are chalky in texture, supporting all that ripe fruit. Subtle floral and spice notes creep into the finish. This is a classy, high-gloss Grenache.
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Wine Spectator
There is a white truffle, earthy note to this red, mingling with toasted cumin, tobacco and black walnut notes. Raspberry, dried cherry and orange zest details sing out on the finish, with soft tannins. Drink now through 2030.
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.
Historically and presently the most important wine-producing region of Australia, the Barossa Valley is set in the Barossa zone of South Australia, where more than half of the country’s wine is made. Because the climate is very hot and dry, vineyard managers work diligently to ensure grapes reach the perfect levels of phenolic ripeness.
The intense heat is ideal for plush, bold reds, particularly Shiraz on its own or Rhône Blends. Often Shiraz and Cabernet partner up for plump and powerful reds.
While much less prevalent, light-skinned varieties such as Riesling, Viognier or Semillon produce vibrant Barossa Valley whites.
Most of Australia’s largest wine producers are based here and Shiraz plantings date back as far as the 1850s or before. Many of them are dry farmed and bush trained, still offering less than one ton per acre of inky, intense, purple juice.