It's one heavy-hitting weekend ahead, with two big yearly allocations having come through our doors this past week, and all ready to impress come Friday evening and Saturday afternoon!
Tomorrow (Friday 17th) will see the McLaren Vale magic from the talented team at Thistledown hit the tasting table once again, with the latest vintage releases of their acclaimed old vine single vineyard Grenache (This Charming Man andSands of Time), as well as a full-bodied stonefruit-laden Grenache Blanc/Roussanne blend in their 'Walking with Kings', the supple and composed 'Cunning Plan' Shiraz, and the crispy well-priced entry range known as the 'Gorgeous' wines. The winery's ambassador Paddy Gilhooly will be in as your host once more; he's excited to fill you all in on what winemakers Giles Corey MW and Fergal Tynan MW have been up to this past vintage! This will run between4 and 7pm.
Sarah Crowe at Yarra Yering continues to set the benchmark for outstanding Yarra Valley quality across her unique range of driven whites and complex reds. There aren't a great many Australian winemakers who can claim the same talent for blending as her, with the beloved Dry Red series always one of the year's fastest selling (and most limited) allocations, as well as the stunningly aromatic Light Dry Red Pinot/Shiraz marvel, and tendency towards Rhône charm with the Marsanne/Roussanne/Viognier blend shown in the Dry White No. 2! We'll have all of these, plus Sarah's entry-level Warramate wines, popped open come Saturday (18th) between 12 and 2pm - hope to hand you a glass!
Gorgeous Grenache Rosé 2025 -
$22 on special this week ($25 RRP)
"Ultra pale, just a hint of coral pink on show. Toffee apple, cinnamon and baking pastry aromas. Soft and supple red fruits with a hint of creamy texture. Flows long, gliding rather than driving with hints of red apple and rhubarb for interest. While supple, the length is good and carries enough drying elements that it finishes clean." - 92 Points, Stuart Knox, The Real Review
Gorgeous Grenache Blanc 2024 -
$23 on special this week ($26 RRP)
"This is engagingly aromatic and overwhelmingly vibrant. It’s made for immediate appeal, but there are layers here, revealing a thoughtful approach, which is especially pleasing at this modest tariff." - 92 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
Gorgeous Grenache 2024 -
$23 on special this week ($26 RRP)
"Medium ruby red colour. Raspberry, rhubarb and musk aromatics. Juicy and vibrant on the palate, red fruits, hints of rhubarb and graphite adding character. Acidity offers a puff of lift then fine tannins carry it along the line. Has a sense of fun and frivolity to it without falling away into sweet or simple." - 91 Points, Stuart Knox, The Real Review
Cunning Plan Shiraz 2023 -
$28 on special this week ($32 RRP)
"From McLaren Flat, matured in mainly seasoned French oak, with 10% new. Tart boysenberry and black cherry, wild raspberry, anise, faint vanilla bean, a little pepper, roasted coffee bean, some light floral notes, violet and the like. Like last year, there’s an effortlessness about this wine, a midweighted ease and supple texture, its composure and flow quietly compelling." - 95 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
Walking with Kings Grenache Blanc/Roussanne 2023 -
$49 on special this week ($56 RRP)
// 70% Roussanne and 30% Grenache Blanc
"Pale lemon yellow colour. Heady nose of ripe peach, honeysuckle and marzipan all leaping from the glass. Full bodied with a vibrant and rich-stone fruit core that is layered with green almond, fennel seed and honeysuckle complexities. Great length, all carried by fine, persistent acidity and there’s a fuzzy grip that focuses and finishes the end with a lovely drying harmony." - 95 Points, Stuart Knox, The Real Review
This Charming Man Old Vine Grenache 2025 -
Available for $99
(Limited availability)
// Previous vintage was the Grenache of the Year, Red Wine of the Year and Wine of the Year for Halliday Wine Companion!
"On a beautiful hillside in the Clarendon sub-region of McLaren Vale, three generations of the Smart family have devoted their lives to Grenache. Decades have passed where precious few valued their crop and yet they endured. That this remarkable vineyard has sustained is down to one man, Bernard Smart and this wine pays homage to this charming man. A remarkable site that has vines of 100 years old. The entire site, planted high in the picturesque Clarendon subregion, is dry grown bush vines and has been farmed by the same family for 3 generations. This wine is sourced from one particular block where the canopy is raised slightly higher above the ground, allowing for better air circulation and increased radiated sunlight. This wine displays muscular yet elegant silky black fruits couple with deep, rich, warming spices, hints of violet, mineral and black cherry." - Winemaker Notes
Sands of Time Old Vine Grenache 2025 -
Available for $99
(Limited availability)
"From the 1952-planted Trott vineyard, which was sold in '26, although the source will likely be a constant for Thistledown. Like the Smart vineyard bottling, this has a distinct imprint of site, and with a super gentle touch, where ferments (30% whole bunch layered in concrete) are not worked, just managed; the transparency of making is a magnifying glass on place. Darker red fruits, as usual, more earthy, with some black spice notes and bergamot tea. Red and black cherry, rosehip, quite floral, if subdued, reds and blues. This seems more refined each year, even in what was a warm and dry year. It’s a fine trajectory, and another superb release." - 97 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
Waterloo Pinot Noir 2024 -
Available for $75
"This is excellent. These 2024 releases are some of winemaker Sarah Crowe’s best work yet, I’d argue. This Waterloo Pinot Noir is bright and murky at once, in the best of ways, with fresh red cherry, stewed strawberries, sweet and woodsy spice notes, and tips of both mint and smoked cedar. It tastes of Pinot Noir and of the Yarra Valley but it also tastes of itself. Thunderbirds are very much go here.” - 94 Points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
Dry White No. 2 2024 -
Available for $75
// 46% Marsanne, 30% Roussanne, 16% Grenache Blanc, 8% Viognier
"Classy wine. Arresting actually. Spice, brine, white peach, cooked apple and cedar-cream characters with a general waxiness threaded throughout. Effectively a white pepper character in pay too, or certainly something in the pepper/mace area, and oyster shells too. This is both suggestive of richness and taut. Big love here. This is fabulous." - 95 Points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
Light Dry Red 2024 -
Available for $85
(Limited availability)
// 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Shiraz
"A vibrant crimson purple. Uber aromatic with its aromas of bright red fruits, musk and floral notes. Loads of flavour and a touch of grip on the delicious, medium-bodied and impeccably balanced palate. Approachable now but no problems cellaring this either over the next 3–5 years." - 96 Points, Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion
Dry Red No. 3 2024 -
Available for $115
// 46% Touriga Nacional, 23% Tinta Cao, 15% Tinta Roriz, 7% Tinta Amarela, 5% Alvarelhao and 4% Sousao
"It’s a wine of delicacy and a wine of difference. It’s also a wine that you want to guzzle, though it has the structure and associated quality markers to make you, also, want to cellar it. It tastes of a variety of berries, ripe and red but not necessarily sweet, with herb, woods, chicory and stem characters littered modestly throughout. It’s also a perfumed wine. And a contemplative one. Indeed, it’s not a wine to smack you in the face; you need to sit and let both you and it unfurl a bit." - 95 Points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
"Fermented with whole berries and matured in barriques (30% new). The cool vintage shows through in what's a lovely and elegant rendition of this Yarra Valley classic. Aromas of red and black fruits, spices and ironstone together with a gentle meatiness. Medium bodied and supple. An approachable and quite delicious Dry Red No. 2 that will provide copious amounts of enjoyment now and over the next 10–15 years." - 97 Points, Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion
Dry Red No. 2 2023 -
$Available for $139
// 98.5% Shiraz, 0.5% Marsanne, 0.5% Mataro and 0.5% Viognier
"Dense ruby with rich purple tones at the rim. Blueberry, ground cumin and fennel with a touch of reductive lift on the nose. Loaded with blue fruits at the core, intense yet not overbearing. There’s layers of cured meats, subtle Sichuan pepper spice and floral lifts along the line with deeper wakame and iodine tones underneath. It’s all bound by a supple acidity and finely wrought tannins, gentle in their guidance but resolute in their persistence, carrying it for an age to an eventual bright and fresh finish." - 98 Points, Stuart Knox, The Real Review
"Fermented with whole berries and matured in barriques (30% new). The cool vintage shows through in what's a lovely and elegant rendition of this Yarra Valley classic. Aromas of red and black fruits, spices and ironstone together with a gentle meatiness. Medium bodied and supple. An approachable and quite delicious Dry Red No. 2 that will provide copious amounts of enjoyment now and over the next 10–15 years." - 97 Points, Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion
Dry Red No. 1 2023 -
Available for $165
(Limited availability)
// 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, 15% Malbec and 5% Petit Verdot
Awarded 2026 Cabernet & Blends of the Year by the Halliday Wine Companion panel
"A deep, bright purple. Classic cool-climate cabernet aromas of black cherry, blackcurrants, cedar, licorice and subtle iodine. The palate is simultaneously concentrated, structured and refined, finishing with an ironstone minerality. Approachable now with food, but anyone who buys some will want to make sure they still have a bottle, or three, 10 to 15 years from now.” - 99 Points, Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion
"Deep and bright purple-red colour; cassis and dried-herb aromas, thyme, oregano, and classical mulberry/cassis cabernet fruit. A wonderful set of perfumes. The wine is full bodied and intensely flavoured, with delicious style and bell-clear varietal cues. Some saline notes at the finish amongst the velvety tannins. Very smart cabernet blend, albeit very young at this stage and ideally should be cellared a few years." - 97 Points, Huon Hooke, The Real Review
Also Available + on Tasting
Warramate Pinot Noir 2024 -
$35 on special this week ($39 RRP)
"Made with 20% whole bunches, 10% new oak. A light, bright crimson. Pretty and perfumed. Aromas of redcurrants, strawberry and blood oranges together with a little rose petal. Light to medium bodied with delicate and finely tuned tannins on the elegant finish." - 94 Points, Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion
Warramate Red Blend 2023 -
$35 on special this week ($39 RRP)
// 46% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 11% Malbec, 8% Petit Verdot
"All the varieties are fermented in the Yarra Yering open-topped fermenters. Brightly coloured and lifted with aromas of red cherries, bell pepper and some light floral notes. Lighter-framed, gently leafy, harmonious and already a pleasure to drink." - 93 Points, Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion
If you wish to purchase any of these wines, please use the links above
Otherwise, if you have any questions, please contact us on (07)32521117 or email sales@thewineemporium.com.au
// Special prices valid until Thursday the 23rd of April