2022 Heirloom Alcala Grenache, McLaren Vale

Gold Medal International Wine Challenge UK May 2023

Gold Medal Royal Sydney Wine Show August 2023

McLaren Vale Shiraz has been a regular feature of our Best in Show and Platinum selections in recent years (as it is again this year), but this distinctive GI to the south of the Adelaide Hills is also celebrated for its astonishing patrimony of old-vine

Grenache. Our judges pounced on this Grenache from the excellent 2022 vintage (dryer in McLaren Vale than elsewhere). A translucent black-purple in colour, this wine has beautiful aromas of sweet, beguiling fruits (strawberry and cherry) without any sticky jamminess; instead those fruits have a fresh, almost perfumed sheen. The wine is dark, vigorous and lively, despite its relatively low acidity; deftly extracted tannins and the innate vigour and tenacity of the fruits deliver that freshness. Fine raw materials and the best of contemporary Australian winemaking come together here

97 points  Best Wine In Show Decanter World Wine Awards 2023  Jun 2023

Opaque crimson purple in colour. Grenache’s definitive ripe-cherry, sweet n’ sour, Christmas Cake and raspberry jam aromatics. Hints of the roasting pan deglazed, faint hints tar, rose petals, and caramel. Aromatics outplay artefact; lifted, rising, wild and powerfully perfumed. All of ripe grenache’s happy fruits: raspberry, mulberry, loganberry, cherry and rose petal jam. The fruit is kept in neat check by fresh acidity, and then, just past the mid-palate, fine-bursting, quick tannins. This is a red wine that starts and finishes in a rounded way, but is cut by acidity’s bite and slowed the tannins’ texture along the way. This makes for a fresh red wine that is also friendly and giving.