2026 Thistledown Gorgeous Grenache Rosé, McLaren Vale

The aptly named Gorgeous Rosé is a bright, expressive, and delightfully dry McLaren Vale rosé of Grenache that captures the natural perfume and lively fruit character of the variety. Crisp and fragrant with wild strawberry, violets and citrus on the nose. The focused palate is tangy and offers a broad range of red fruit flavours.

Australia is a natural setting for a glass of rose in any season, and with wines like this, its no wonder that we see a steady stream leave the warehouse every day. Delicious on its own, this wine pairs well with a wide spread on the table and easily jumps back and forth from vegetables to seafood and lighter meats.

More about this wine

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.

2026 was a somewhat erratic season, and required a lot of patience from growers, but those who waited through the ups and downs and managed their yields ended up with fragrant and balanced fruit.

The handpicked grapes for this wine were de-stemmed, crushed and allowed 3.5 hours on skins to extract light colour. The juice was fermented at cool temperatures to retain the beautiful aromatics Grenache offers and to achieve a crisp palate texture. The wine was then left on lees for six months for enhanced mouthfeel.