Category: McLaren Vale

Grenache and Shiraz and the first wine region I visited. Thirty six years ago, sea breezes and almond blossom and a vague idea wine tasted nice. McLaren Vale was a friendly place, still is, with generous cellar doors ready to pour the good things. This is generous and warm too. Opens with bottle aged old polished furniture smells, then blackberries and spiced plum jam fill the mouth. More complications like a sweet, fertile, well tended garden, quality dark chocolate, cherry liqueur as it warms verging on that childhood cough syrup and roast nuts. All sort of melted together by time. Good natural feeling acidity and chocolate tannin. Idle thought that perhaps I like most Australian red wine in its earlier years. Sometimes things just mellow and sink into each other, comfortable but better, not sure? Nonetheless on a cold winter night, this warmed the proverbial cockles.

14% alcohol. Screw cap. $30 at auction, unusually shrewd bid.

93 points.

Oh well, another of those bottles that tries to convince its quality by sheer heft. First growth Bordeaux fetches a lot more with much less glass. Nonetheless, Blewitt Springs seems to be a sub region producing Grenache of deliciousness, albeit possibly compromised by the addition of Shiraz here. Comfortably medium weight, starting with savoury peanuts, cherry jam, strawberry perfume, spices and a slightly salty finish, holding up well on naturally ripe acidity and velvet tannins. I do like it’s composure and making, less extraction, less oak, more interest. Higher toned perfumes emerge, roses, strawberry juice, a few of my favourite things. Poise and elan rather than weight and muscle, raindrops on roses, that’s enough Sound of Music.

14.5% alcohol but not showing too much warmth. Screw cap. $13.65 at auction which is quite a score these days as more people with Covid avoidance time on their hands plunder the lists.

93 points.

It’s quite sobering, metaphorically thank goodness, to find that your supposed astuteness in seeking bargains is stuffed. This has a RRP of $75, so scoring a couple of bottles for a lot less at auction meant self congratulation until it turned up on the Vinomofo site for $25, what do I know? Nonetheless, probably a lot less, this is still a finely crafted bit of what McLaren Vale does best. Warm brown spices, stems? Sooty dark berries, purple flowers, don’t mind me, raspberries all flow on good ripe skin tannin and settled acidity. Made with discretion, a tickle of greener stem tannin emerges to stop things being too fruit sweet. Lovely to drink, cheerful and honest, notwithstanding price or a particularly heavy glass bottle. Wish the sensitivity of touch extended to the packaging.

14.5% alcohol. Screw cap. Price, well, variable.

93 points.

Yet another from Blewitt Springs, McLaren Vale that is. Busy place. In the glass, there’s loads of dried herbs with an Australian bush accent. Very frisky red fruit, spices and aniseed. Good crack of bright acidity, little bit citrusy and some grip from those herby stems. Something like a lemony oak note or crashes the party a little for this fusspot. Probably won’t trouble most. In broad terms, it’s good to see the grapes picked for fresh red fruit, the Shiraz bit seems, well, almost racy. Enough depth of flavour to satisfy, still full of generous plum and pomegranate fruit. Paralian’s a good new word to add to the vocabulary for us living on the margin by the big ocean.

14% alcohol. Screw cap. 555 gms of glass which seems about average for most Australian bottles. After weighing a few, I’m going to stop, only to note those with virtuous lightness or berate those show off heavyweights. As a Campbell Mattinson Winefront review described one obese effort, “for those with more money than confidence”. This bottle was $30 at auction.

94 points.

Going back to the blends of Grenache and Shiraz that would have been labelled Burgundy last century, this one shows itself more than the sum of its parts. Spiced poached cherries, dark brandy soaked fruit cake, tar, aniseed and chocolate. Plums galore as it sits in the glass, not for long though, delicious. The structure seems naturally grippy and large enough to handle the generous ripe blast of fruit. Big heart, broad shoulders, firm handshake and no artifice.

14.5% alcohol. Screw cap. 593 gms of glass. Clearance special at Dan’s for $27.88

93 very solid points.

A blend of 85% Grenache, 12% Shiraz and 3% Mourvèdre which means it could be simply labelled as Grenache under Australian labelling rules which apparently allow 15% of something else without having to declare it. Not much chance of real ingredient labelling anytime soon then. Nonetheless, kudos to the Jerichos for being this concise. The label also says it’s from the Blewitt Springs sub region where nearly every McLaren Vale Grenache I’ve enjoyed seems to come from. Smell and flavours thus, leather, earthy, dried cherry and a sort of clove or nutmeg feel. It comes alive on the tongue with really bright rich raspberries, florals, hot cross bun spice and leathery dried grape skins. Good whack of natural feeling, stalky acidity cleans up nicely. Second day and the rich fruit’s quite lolly sweet to the point of almost cloying but that stalky cut organises it well. Delicious but you have to like that youthful power of full throttle sweet Grenache, honest, rich and probably typical of the Springs of Blewitt.

14.20% alcohol. Screw cap. 548 gms of glass. $26, good value.

93 points.