Ranked #9 of 70 2020 Grenache from McLaren Vale
95/100
5 Stars
Huon Hooke
Medium-depth colour with a reserved nose, a mite restrained at this stage, with aromas of plum pits and skins, background spices, the same in the mouth, where it has good depth of intense and compact flavour but seems a tad latent. This is puzzling: it almost certainly needs more time, but it's hard to see the value at this moment. An elegant style of grenache for sure, and less exuberant than some earlier vintages
Tasted: 01/01/2023
Drink: 2024 to 2035
97 Points James Halliday
Wild fermented. Open tops. Extracted dutifully across a 21 day window. Foudre and eggs for 11 months thereafter. This is a wine of power reigned in by sumptuous tannins, like matrix dots doused with spice and teeming across the mind's eye. More southern Rhône than Gredos, often the inspiration in these parts. Moroccan souk. Goa trail blazing. Darker, danker fruits, clove and assertive tannins ... those gorgeous tannins, trailing the wine to prodigious length. Wow! Drink to 2032.
Ned Goodwin MW. August, 2023