While we won't stand here and give the old 'winter is now over' spiel, as the Queensland heat feels like it made its return months ago, we can say with certainty that our sights have shifted these past couple weeks towards preferring wines of a lively, more fragrant make. After the focus on Clare Valley and the crispy whites of Grosset last week, we started to think what we could show you all this weekend. One thing that made that decision a touch easier was the welcome deluge of great grenache we've been compiling over the past month or two. We knew we wanted to put something exciting together with them at some point, and we now feel that time has come!
From 12 to 2pm at this Saturday's tasting (14th September), join us in the shop as we take you through a memorable lineup showcasing some of this purple-skinned grape's very best representations from both Australia and France. Between the great value found with the In Praise of Shadows from McLaren Vale and Roger Sabon's Côtes du Rhône, and the phenomenal aromatic qualities shown with MMAD, Hentley Farm, Bulman, Yangarra, and Sabon's Cheateauneuf-du-Pape releases, we'll aim to spread the love for a varietal that has been on a deserved rise in recent years; a trend being aptly titled 'the grenache renaissance'. We think 'Grenaissance' rolls off the tongue a bit better, though.
See you on the weekend!
The Greatness of Grenache - Specials & Tasting
Saturday 14th September
12 to 2pm
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In Praise of Shadows McLaren Vale Grenache -
$27 on special this week; $30 RRP
// Gold Medal Winner at Halliday Grenache Challenge 2023 & McLaren Vale Wine Show 2023
"Bright and frisky, strawberry, fresh raspberry, mint and aniseed. Medium-bodied at most, cranberry acidity, a lot of energy, dusty peppery tannin, maybe at the expense of concentration, but gee it’s a lively and good wine to drink. Bright, tight, and very frisky. Great drinking." - 94 Points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
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Roger Sabon Côtes du Rhône Grenache Syrah Cinsault 2022 -
$32 on special this week; $36 RRP
A terrific Côtes du Rhône blend here from Roger Sabon - every bit as lush, polished, and beautifully balanced as you'd want, with 80% Grenache grown on clay and limestone, and 10% equally of Syrah and Cinsault. The fruit is all handpicked and destemmed, which really shows with its pronounced notes of smooth licorice and vanilla, backed up with some dark cherries and grippy tannins. For us, this is one of the best pieces of value coming out of the whole Rhône Valley! Ideal for drinking right now in its youth - Our Notes
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MMAD Blewitt Springs Grenache 2022 -
$63 on special this week; $72 RRP
"This is ballistically good. I doubt that I’ll taste anything much better from these shores over the next 12 months. The first thing you notice is the plushness, which is always welcome, but it’s the the finish that takes things to eleven. Wow, really, this wine has a show-stopping finish on it. It’s blessed with red and blue berry flavours, cedarwood, roasted spice and earth, but itemising the flavours of this wine kind of misses the point. It’s like focussing on the colour of a tidal wave. The complete and utter command of the final flourish of flavour and tannin here feels, as you swallow, like a high water mark. I’m sold, totally sold, on this wine." - 97 Points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
"There’s a brooding quality at present, with nori, iodine and ferrous notes filtering up through dark red cherry, plum, raspberry and sultry florals. Some spicy, musky characters emerge with air. Tannin is a meaningful factor, a pleasingly natural grape-derived affair, rugged but never rustic. A seriously compelling wine, and further proof of how thrilling McLaren Vale grenache is right now, for both its quality and the unparalleled diversity in top-flight expressions." - 97 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
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Hentley Farm 'Old Legend' Barossa Grenache 2022 -
$65 on special this week; $75 RRP
// Top Gold Winner & 96 Points - Royal Brisbane Wine Show&2023 Gold Medal Winner - Marananga Wine Show 2023
"Lovely, lifted aromas of blueberry, cherry, dried herbs, spice, violets, briar, earth and cedar. There’s lovely richness, flesh and absolute charm here. Flavours are in the blue and red fruit zone and the nutty oak, zippy acid and sweet spice do their thing admirably and frame the wine superbly. This is a wine of poise, grace and seamlessness and is so deliciously drinkable!" - 96 Points, Aaron Brasher, The Real Review
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Bulman Gary's Vineyard Blewitt Springs Grenache 2023 -
$69 on special this week; $78 RRP
"This wine. This wine. It didn’t have me at hello but, once I’d sat with it for a bit, I never wanted it to leave. This is an instant entrant into the top tier of Australian wine. It’s tannic. It’s meaty. It’s like a pound of chestnuts set into coal, all sweet nuts and woodsmoke, forest berries and leaves. It presents as one complete whole. If you ever wanted an argument for grenache sans oak, this is the last one you’d ever need to hear. It makes the unplugged seem definitive. Tannin-wise it’s completely unafraid of upsetting anyone; it just does what it wants, and what it wants is both ribboned and imposing. It’s superbly long but then, it’s superb throughout." - 97 Points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
"It’s a complex thing, with air unlocking layer after layer of detail. Freshly crushed bay laurel, dried cranberry, pickled cherries, orange peel, fading rose petals, bitter red aperitivo and mountain herbs, rolling into dry-warmed spices – cassia, clove and pepper – pink peppercorn, goji and sumac. It’s finely tooled, decidedly and energetically tannic, but not wantonly so, rather they’re schooling, channelling tannins, resolute in direction, the fruit intensity knit within. It’s very fine indeed." - 97 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
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Bulman Glen's Vineyard Eden Valley Grenache 2023 -
$69 on special this week; $78 RRP
"It can take a long time for the right person to walk into the right place, but when Mark Bulman, infused with the confidence of a Jimmy Watson grenache win, stepped onto the Stonegarten Vineyard with a mind to make a mark under his own name, various cogs in the universe shifted, and something important slipped into place. If Stonegarten was called Skywalker, I’d say that this vineyard has finally met its father, though in this case, I’ll settle for its maker. This is simply an exquisite wine. My first reaction, in all honesty, was that it’s completely different to anything I’ve seen previously from the Eden Valley. And yet, the longer I sat with it, the more Eden Valley it seemed. This wine sets sail for eden, as a concept, and then returns to Eden, as its home. It throws characters of stone, concrete, redcurrant, blood orange, mint, rust, seaweed and assorted other shopping list items, but it’s the flamboyance of its scent, the long raking farmland of tannin, and the collection of blood-splattered stones that really set it in its place. Yes, I think it’s good. I also think it’s a steal." - 97 Points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
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Yangarra Ovitelli McLaren Vale Grenache 2022 -
$75 on special this week; $85 RRP
// Certified Organic & Biodynamic
"The concrete and the clay beneath my feet, begins to crumble, but love will never die. Gee, you can really smell and taste the maturation vessel in this wine, which I like, because it appeals to my love of Italian wines and their tannic structure. Red fruit, dried flowers (including chamomile), aniseed and mint, tamarind, almond meal and fresh rhubarb, cranberry flavour and acidity. It’s medium-bodied, dry and very firm, but does have bright red fruit of some succulence in with all that dusty terracotta stuff. The finish is long and kind of bony, but it does carry perfume as it closes. This may be a little too much for some. but I love it. Such a fine and distinctive wine." - 96 Points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
"Taut and sinewy, both a function of making and the year that was, this is a coiled spring of dried flowers, cranberry, raspberry leaf tea, cherry, pomegranate and dusty white pepper spicing. The pedigree of place, venerable vines, impeccable viticultural stewardship and fine-tuned making suggest this will have a long and exciting future, but it needs a few years to unlock all its mysteries. As it stands, it is a thrilling bottle, if a little stern at present. I have a feeling the score may tick up with time." - 96 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
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Roger Sabon Chateauneuf-du-Pape 'Les Olivets' 2021 -
$83 on special this week; $95 RRP
// 80% Grenache, 10% Cinsault, 10% Syrah
"In the 2021 Chateauneuf du Pape les Olivets, one imagines the smell/taste of olive has actually entered the wine, joining herbal, garrigue and cherry notes on the nose and medium to full-bodied palate. Fine, soft and elegant, this is a wine to enjoy on the young side." - Joe Czerwinski, Wine Advocate
"The 2021 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Les Olivets is made from fully de-stemmed fruit. Akin to the Réserve from the same vintage, it has a slightly reductive character requiring some aeration before opening up. Showcasing glossy red fruit aromas and a pinch of menthol, it is remarkably elegant, medium to fullbodied and polished." - Nicolas Greinacher, Vinous
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Roger Sabon Chateauneuf-du-Pape 'Prestige' 2021 -
$145 on special this week; $165 RRP
"The 2021 Chateauneuf du Pape Prestige is approximately 70% Grenache and 20% Syrah, with 10% other permitted varieties. It's not as open or as flashy as the Réserve, but it shows terrific ripeness and concentration. Black cherries and plums come tinged with hints of dark chocolate, while the full-bodied palate is rich and velvety yet impressively drinkable." - 95 Points, Joe Czerwinski, Wine Advocate
"Mixing delicate aromas of ripe raspberry, red and black cherry, licorice and garrigue. This red is impeccably well-balanced, shining with excellent purity of flavors." - 93 Points, Nicolas Greinacher, Vinous
If you wish to buy any of these wines, please use the links above ? Alternatively, email us at sales@thewineemporium.com.au, or contact us on (07)32521117 if you have any questions.
// Prices valid until Thursday the 19th of August