2025 Thistledown Thorny Devil Grenache, McLaren Vale

Halliday Top 100 Wines 2026

Built from a mix of sites, with the theme being old bush vines; seasoned oak for about eight months. This has gone up a few dollars, yet it remains one of the country’s best value wines, when you consider provenance, quality and pure joy-giving potential. This is expressly fruitful and open at this early stage. Ripe redcurrant, maraschino cherries, rosehip tea, kirsch, rosewater and dried rose petals in spice, a stroll through a Persian souk – perhaps an indulgent analogy, but it has that evocation of ancient luxury, when spice and perfume were marvels. The elegant headiness is delightful, but it’s the natural tensioning that elevates this, with detailed, quietly complex tannins yielding integrated savouriness. Drink 2026-2035.

95 points Special Value Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, April 2026

The 2025 Thorny Devil Grenache is dark in the glass and layered with pomegranate molasses, raspberry compote, star anise/aniseed, dark chocolate and blood orange. In the mouth, the wine is concentrated and intense, with bright acidity that emphasizes the firmness of the tannins. I have found this circumstance of elevated acidity in many of the 2025s tasted today, and I am not sure whether or not to attribute this to the fact that they are unfinished samples (admittedly, very close to bottling) or if it is a factor of the way the vintage played out; despite the drought and heat, winemaker/proprietor Giles Cooke MW has said that there was an instance of higher malic acidity in this vintage. So here, the 2025 Thorny Devil Grenache is a product of its season, with its density, compaction and elevated acidity, which makes for a big impact in the mouth. I was glad to see it again in 2026 as a more settled wine. Drink to 2035.

93 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, June 2026

Lifted and youthful aromas of blueberry, pot-pourri, dried herbs, ferrous earth and limestone. Firm, fleshy and mid-weighted, with a core of red and blue fruits, spice and textured, shapely tannins. Long, layered and with plenty of zip and ping. Drink 2026–2036.

92 points Aaron Basher, The Real Review, March 2026

Thistledown Wines is an Adelaide Hills based producer founded in 2010 by Giles Cooke and Fergal Tynan. It has built a strong reputation especially around its Grenache wines, with grapes sourced from old bush vine vineyards in McLaren Vale and Eden Valley.