2022 Juxtaposed Old Vine Grenache, McLaren Vale

From three old-vine sites: Wait in Blewitt Springs, Smart in Clarendon and a 1930s block on the flats. There’s a nutty, oak-derived character here of hazelnut skin and roasted chestnuts, along with the savoury drive of 17 months in barrel. This needs time to pull the fruit up and out, but it comes. Spiced cherries, dried orange and dried mint, star anise, brown cardamom, moist tobacco, panforte and pressed flowers. It has an almost Italianate feel, the power of the fruit evident but netted in by a structured and savoury theme. Give it plenty of air, and the rewards come. Drink 2024 to 2032.

93 points Marcus Ellis for Halliday Wine Companion, November 2024

A Canadian snowboarder who took a restaurant job in Whistler for thirteen years to keep his days free for the slopes — before wine took over entirely. A degree in wine biochemistry, an internship at Château Léoville Las Cases in Bordeaux and a PhD later, Wes Pearson arrived in McLaren Vale via an unlikely route in 2008 and now works as a Senior Sensory Scientist at the Australian Wine Research Institute. Fancy. His label Juxtaposed launched in 2011 is the other side of his professional life: where the research world demands precision and process, the winery demands feel and instinct. The name captures both. A Len Evans Tutorial alumnus, Wes focuses on single vineyard Grenache and Shiraz from across McLaren Vale, sourcing from growers whose stories he considers as much a part of the wine as the fruit itself.

This Grenache draws from three old-vine sites in Blewitt Springs, Clarendon and on the McLaren flats planted in the 1930s. Between them, the sites cover the region's cooler elevated subregions and its warmer valley floor, building complexity rather than chasing uniformity.

Seventeen months in barrel has shaped the wine firmly. Hazelnut skin and roasted chestnuts sit at the fore alongside spiced cherries, dried orange and a pressed-flower lift that reads almost Italianate in character. Brown cardamom, star anise, moist tobacco and panforte weave through a structured, savoury frame.

The fruit needs some time and air to surface. Open this well ahead of serving and give it room to breathe. Grenache tends to earn little respect as a cellaring prospect despite a lineage shared with some of the illustrious names of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Priorat. South Australia's distinguished old blocks are worthy of your attention too. Five years in the bottle will give you wine experience you might not know you needed.

Suits slow cooked meals with some earthy character: braised rabbit or a wild mushroom ragu. A bottle with a few more years on it might have you rethinking the menu entirely.

Drinks well to 2032.