Grenache: 16 of Australia’s Greatest, and the Comeback of the Century
The comeback grape. Sixteen of Australia's best, in one afternoon.
Hosted by JJ
16 wines from 11 producers, across 2007 to 2024.
Sixteen glasses in front of every attendee
Including a perfect 100 points
S.C. Pannell Sunrise 99 Grenache 2022
100 Points, Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
98 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
A three-vintage vertical of Alkina Polygon 5, 2019, 2020 and 2023
And two Cirillo 1850 Ancestor Vine bottlings a decade apart
Over $2,600 of wine across sixteen glasses.
Saturday, August 15th
Hosted by JJ
Tasting: 3–5pm, 16 wines & Kate Lamont nibbles, $295
Sixteen glasses in front of each attendee
From the vine-pull to a hundred points
Forty years ago grenache was the grape nobody wanted. It went into bulk wine, cheap fortifieds, and demijohns sold off to Adelaide's Italian families for homemade reds. Under the vine-pull scheme of the 1980s, growers in McLaren Vale tore out something like forty per cent of it, because there was no money in it and no market for it. Some of the vines that came out had been in the ground since the nineteenth century.
What survived, survived mostly by accident: blocks too old, too small or too awkward to be worth the bulldozer, on sand that would grow little else. Blewitt Springs, Clarendon, the deep Maslin sands, the ancient bush vines at Cirillo planted in 1848 and at Yangarra in 1946. Those accidents are now the most valuable grenache sites in the country.
The turn came when a generation of makers stopped treating grenache as a lesser shiraz. Less extraction, less new oak, whole bunches, concrete and ceramic instead of barrels, picking earlier for perfume rather than power. The wine that emerged is pale, fragrant, savoury and tannic, and it looks much more like fine Burgundy or Rayas than anything Australia had been making from the grape before.
The market noticed. Alkina sells its Polygon grenaches from micro-plots of seventy-year-old vines for around $295 a bottle. Yangarra's High Sands, from the best block of 1946 vines on the property, is around $300. In 2022 Steve Pannell bought the Sunrise vineyard in Blewitt Springs, planted in 1920, pruned it himself before the sale went through, and made the first wine off it. Erin Larkin gave it 100 points.
That is the arc this tasting walks through, and it is why the line-up reaches back to a 2007. Nineteen years is long enough to see whether the new style holds up, and old enough to remind you that some of these vines were unwanted within living memory.
What the critics are saying
"If anybody believes that other varieties in this country can match the world-class persuasions of McLaren Vale grenache they are sorely mistaken."
Ned Goodwin MW, Halliday Wine Companion
"Once shunned, now prized: why grenache has become highly valued."
Max Allen, The Australian Financial Review
"Now, it's arguably the most exciting grape in Australia. It's certainly among the most expensive."
Max Allen, The Australian Financial Review
"It is a pleasure to witness the rise of grenache, the flag bearer of the most exciting chapter of Australian wine to date."
Ned Goodwin MW, JamesSuckling.com
"The McLaren Vale Grenache story is a very important one to the global world of Grenache."
Erin Larkin, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
"Among Australia's very greatest reds."
Ned Goodwin MW, Halliday Wine Companion
"They rival the very finest in the world."
Ned Goodwin MW, JamesSuckling.com
"Among the world's finest grenache."
"Tastes akin to top-drawer Burgundy, much like Rayas…"
Ned Goodwin MW, JamesSuckling.com, on the Polygon releases
On Blewitt Springs, the sandy sub-region that produces a remarkable share of the wines below, Max Allen wrote in the Financial Review that its vineyards "have taken on an almost mythic quality for a growing number of winemakers," and noted that James Halliday has described wines from this part of the world as "the holy of holies."
A decade of awards
The clearest measure of how far grenache has come is what it has been winning. These are the specific wines and vintages that took the honours, and they are the reason producers like Yangarra, Thistledown and Pannell are now spoken of in the same breath as the country's great cabernet and shiraz estates.
Wine of the Year 2020
Yangarra High Sands Grenache 2016
Halliday Wine Companion
Wine of the Year 2024
Yangarra Old Vine Grenache 2021
Halliday Wine Companion
Wine of the Year 2026, Red of the Year, Grenache of the Year
Thistledown Grenache
Halliday Wine Companion
Number one, Top 100 Australian Wines 2023
Ovitelli Grenache 2021
Ned Goodwin MW, JamesSuckling.com
Joint Wine of the Year 2024
Thistledown
Tyson Stelzer
Red Wine of the Year 2025
Thistledown
Huon Hooke, The Real Review
100 Points, Top 100 Wines 2020
High Sands Grenache 2019
James Suckling
99 Points
High Sands Grenache 2020
James Halliday, The Weekend Australian
Three Halliday Wines of the Year since 2020, all of them grenache. Not all of those exact bottlings are on the table on Saturday, but every producer that earned them is, and the scores beside the sixteen wines below are their own.
How the sixteen are built
This is not sixteen unrelated grenaches. There are three things running through it worth knowing before you sit down.
A three-vintage Alkina vertical. Polygon 5 from 2019, 2020 and 2023, all from the same micro-plot of micaceous schist over iron-rich clay in the Barossa, all certified organic and biodynamic, all made in concrete. Erin Larkin has scored them 96, 97 and 96, and Dave Brookes gave the 2019 a 98. Three seasons, one patch of dirt, and the difference between them is the whole argument for site.
A Cirillo pair a decade apart. The 2007 and the 2017, both from ancestor vines planted in 1848 and both released after years in tank. The 2017 has 98 points from Angus Hughson, who called it a world beater and the best 1850 yet. The 2007, at nineteen years old, tells you where the 2017 is heading.
Two West Australian wines holding their own. Swinney's Farvie from Frankland River, picked on the first of March in the searing 2024 season, which Ray Jordan scored 98 and called a wine that continues to define Australian grenache. And Vino Volta's Pezzonovante from old dry-grown bush vines in the Swan Valley, planted by the Scampolli family on gravel and sand over coffee rock, at 96 points and $45. The Swan Valley is not where most people look for serious grenache. It should be.
The rest spans the two heartlands. Seven from the Barossa, six from McLaren Vale, one Penfolds Bin 21 blending both, and the two from Western Australia. Prices run from $44 to $390, the top end being a magnum. Together the sixteen come to a little over $2,600 at retail.
The Wine List
Sixteen wines, in pouring order. With Kate Lamont nibbles.
Alkina Estate Polygon 5 Grenache 2023 | Our Price $296
The 2023 Polygon 5 Grenache was just reviewed in March 2025, so this "hot on the heels" tasting represents a contextual assessment of the wine among its vintage peers. The wine and vintage combination is a marvel here. While inherently more powerful, being grown on schist and clay, the power of the wine has been curtailed and restrained by the challenging growing conditions, which were cool and wet. The 2023s are very impressive wines, more savoury than their counterparts perhaps but so restrained and elegant.
96 Points, Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate (Sept 2025)
Fractured schist and limestone underlie the grenache in Polygon No. 5. 80% whole bunch and matured in unlined concrete tulip and egg. Light, airy mid-ruby in the glass with aromas of raspberry, redcurrant and red cherry fruits cut with hints of medina spice, citrus blossom, crushed rock, tamarind, ginger cake, peach iced tea and pressed wildflowers. Some light, looser-knit oxidative tones in play here with some schisty sinew to the fine tannins and that trademark sapid mineral line at the wine's tail.
95 Points, Dave Brookes, Halliday Wine Companion (Jun 2025)
Alkina Estate Polygon 5 Grenache 2020 | Our Price $315
In a year that suffered widespread crop losses, the 2020 Polygon 5 Grenache enjoys the highest yield of its three-year span: 695 bottles. The wine is mineral and restrained, with lashings of red spices, paprika and even cayenne, pomegranate and redcurrant, hints of blood plum and licorice. This is a superstar and a tremendous wine that is improving with age.
97 Points, Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate (Sept 2025)
More depth to the purple-crimson colour than Polygon No. 3, and a darker expression on the bouquet and palate alike. Black cherries add a note as do the rolled gold tannins. Overall rich, and velvety in the mouth, its depth, balance and length will give it exceptional longevity.
95 Points, James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion (Oct 2023)
Alkina Estate Polygon 5 Grenache 2019 | Our Price $325
Certified organic and biodynamic grenache from Alkina Wines' Polygon 5, a subplot of micaceous schist over veins of iron-rich clay. Whole bunches (100%), matured in one 500L concrete cylinder for nine months. Phwoar! This is a beauty. A little more wild-eyed than its Polygon No. 3 sibling, with savoury dark cherries and red plums intertwined with ironstone, souk-like spices, pressed flowers, gingerbread, cola, white blossom, pomegranate and dried raspberries. Supple, svelte and sinewy with a nervous, vital disposition and a fine, graceful exit bathed in red fruits, compact fine tannin and spice. Superb!
98 Points, Dave Brookes, Halliday Wine Companion (Aug 2023)
The 2019 Polygon 5 Grenache is far more mineral and fine than the 2018 tasted alongside. Here, the wine is mineral and refined, with graphite, clove, licorice, pomegranate and blood plum. This is a superb wine, gorgeous, in fact. It retains a real Grenache power at the core but is totally restrained and nuanced as well.
96 Points, Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate (Sept 2025)
Cirillo 1850 Old Vine Grenache 2007 | Our Price $90
Inky ruby. High-pitched aromas of red berry preserves, musky herbs and potpourri, with an exotic note of apricot pit in the background. Fresh and focused, offering juicy red and dark berry flavours and strong spicy lift. Rich but energetic grenache with strong finishing cut and noteworthy persistence.
92 Points, Josh Raynolds, Vinous
90 Points, James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion (Mar 2022)
Cirillo 1850 Old Vine Grenache 2017 | Our Price $66
This 2017 old vine Grenache 1850 Ancestor Vine is a little shy at first but then shows breathtaking purity of dark cherry and musky plum with some more exotic cinnamon stick and red licorice hints. The 2017 is beautifully textured and weighted, and despite quite serious underlying power, it remains light on its feet. The excellent vibrancy of fruit is on show and slowly builds layer upon layer of savoury roasted meat complexity. Strong ironstone adds backbone to a delightfully perfumed finish. It's a world beater with killer length and the best 1850 yet from Cirillo.
98 Points, Angus Hughson, Vinous
The vineyard that is the source for this wine was planted in 1848 and endures today. The vines are bush vines, but some have single stakes here and there to support the old wood. It's a special place. 2017 was cold and wet in the Barossa and high cropping across the region. This was a challenging combination for many producers; however winemaker Marco Cirillo openly prefers these vintages, and that can only be down to the fact that these old vines are largely self regulating with their yields and growth. So, this 2017 Ancestor Vines 1850 Grenache flows in the mouth with red berries, finely crushed rocks for tannins, tobacco and pepper berry, pastrami, pink peppercorns, raspberry seed and caper brine. It has a lovely flavour arc in the mouth, supple. It is clear, pure, sensational. I love the tannins. It's sapid and palate staining but so light!
96 Points, Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate (Sept 2023)
A cooler year that Cirillo enthuses makes for a bit of gristle, this is exceptional. Six years in tank before release, this full-weighted wine riffs on redder fruits, rather than dark. Raspberry bon-bon, red pastille, rose petal, bergamot and a slake of tannins clad in licorice root and tea tree. Yet there is nothing drying about it as it revels with air, growing more pixelated of tannins, fresher and even more aromatic. Wonderful length. Compelling freshness. This will make fine old bones.
96 Points, James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com
Greenock Creek Cornerstone Grenache 2021 | Our Price $44
From an east-facing 1ha block of grenache planted in the '60s, sitting above the Greenock Creek on Roennfeldt Road. Aged in old French oak for 10 months. Bright red purple in the glass with vibrant, floral-flecked red plum, raspberry and mulberry fruits, exotic spice, gingerbread, red licorice and frangipani high tones. Lovely fruit and bright acid cadence, a little alcohol poking through but that fruit is killer.
92 Points, Dave Brookes, Halliday Wine Companion (Aug 2022)
Penfolds Bin 21 Grenache 2024 | Our Price $58
The Bin 21 Grenache has been in fine form lately and again impresses with the '24 release. A vibrant medium crimson in the glass with aromas of red and dark plum, boysenberry, raspberry and wild strawberry. Hints of exotic spice, cola, pomegranate juice, earth and gingerbread. Pure plummy fruits on the palate with hints of ginger cake. A cloud of nice fine tannin provides some gentle chew to its form, and there is a plume of pure fruit and spice on the exit.
95 Points, Dave Brookes, Halliday Wine Companion
The fruit for the Bin 21 Grenache is from both Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale. 2024 was a superb season in most of South Australia, warm and dry without being stressed or hot. The 2024 Bin 21 Grenache is elegant and juicy, with savoury tannins that balance the sweetness of the fruit. It's really well played. Here, the wine offers generous, early-drinking characters, but it also appears to have the structure to go some distance in the cellar.
94 Points, Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate (Jul 2025)
93 Points, Angus Hughson, Vinous
92 Points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
S.C. Pannell Smart Grenache 2023 | Our Price $69
From 68-year-old vines in Clarendon, with the wine dedicated to the man who planted and farmed them, the much-loved and missed Bernard Smart. The Smart wine is always elegant, and that follows here, though it has plenty of stuffing considering it was a very cool season. Perhaps I overuse the word savoury, but here we are again. It's true across the impeccable single-site trio. This needs air, which sees an unfurling of exotic spices, rosewater, musk and dried orange peel notes, more moody than heady, the fruit flavour red but also tartly black fruited, with some sour black cherry notes, along with black tea and bergamot, even a scent of star anise. The tannins incisive, resolute but not demanding; the wine, another triumph.
97 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion (Jul 2025)
The 2023 Smart Grenache was significantly lower in yield (less than half) than the normal. The colour in the glass, when poured side by side with the 2022, is far darker. The seasons were very different, and the 2023 here smells as if it's been turbocharged. It is supple, svelte, concentrated and almost plush. The palate shows the same. This is incredibly silky and seamless, with notes of sweet pouch tobacco, pomegranate molasses, raspberry, rhubarb and paprika dolce tannins. The texture here is like Dutch cocoa, super fine and gritty without being gravelly or blunt. This is super.
97 Points, Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate (Sept 2025)
S.C. Pannell Sunrise 99 Grenache 2022 | Our Price $223
The 100-point wine of the tasting
The Sunrise vineyard was planted in 1920. The 2022 Sunrise Grenache marks the first time this wine has been made and released. Steve Pannell pruned the vineyard himself prior to purchasing it in 2021. The wine here is silky and seamless, packed with tannin, flavour and perfume. "I didn't make it any differently [than the other Grenaches]; I've just let the vineyard sing," he said. And sing, it does. This is a wholly complex, complete and persistently long wine. There are notes of Boscobel rose, sweet licorice, graphite, ironstone and tobacco. What a wine. In terms of character, this combines the texture and complexity of the Smart vineyard and the ethereal spice and delicacy of the Little Branch and then raises the bar of both to a whole new level. The release of this Sunrise Grenache marks the arrival of an "off-leash Pannell"; he has been tirelessly championing premium Grenache from McLaren Vale for years in his own oeuvre of structure, shape, tannin and freshness. In many ways, it feels as if all of the Grenache that Pannell has made over the decades has been leading up to this point. It was worth the wait.
100 Points, Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate (Sept 2025)
This block of centenarian bush vines is warmed by the morning sun, with this their 99th vintage, though the first under Pannell ownership. Damn, this is a thing! You can look at the winemaking, destemmed, raised in a decade-old vat, to find why it is so different to other wines off this site, or to those from similarly sandy soils in the district, but you won't find an answer. And nor should you. Primacy of place. It's the thing. But when it booms from the glass, makes you pause, sits you down in hushed silence… well, that's a thing. This does that. It's impossibly deep and moody, intense, yet also not, with all the fragrant delicacy and detail of the great grenaches of today. Dehydrated cherry and cranberry, black cherry, ground dried orange peel, warm terracotta, sun-faded rose, bergamot tea, struck iron, heady Moorish spices. Barolo resonances. But individual. Utterly so. Tannins silty, chewy, complex, emphatic but not dogged. Another great Vale grenache. Top Tier. Bravo.
98 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion (Oct 2025)
Swinney Farvie Grenache 2024 | Our Price $155
Of the three Farvie releases from the searing hot 2024, this is the wine that just gets the edge. The colour is quite brilliant. It was picked on March 1 as distinct from the end of April in more normal years. Aromas have that distinctive ironstone character, which is regional and vineyard. The palate is quite tight and firmish, but there is good flesh in there. The higher acidity contributed to that tight palate sensation. In this case, a higher percentage of whole bunches to capture the freshness in the wine. Almost has a sour cherry-like character with a ferrous wet slaty character. More assertive structural tannins. The berry sizes were quite small and loose, so you get the brightness and concentration. It is a stunning wine that continues to define Australian grenache.
98 Points, Ray Jordan, rayjordanwine.com.au
The 2024 Farvie Grenache is fragrant and perfumed, redolent of rose petals and raspberry seed, rhubarb and a hint of licorice. The palate is structural and quite delicate; it is ashy, mineral and spicy, with a very fine spool of flavour across the palate. Initially, the acidity and tannins in this wine displayed as firm (fine but firm), however, the wine then opened up tremendously and will continue to do so over the next day, and with that opening comes a relaxing of all the components. This is a gorgeous wine, one that should reset your expectations about this vintage, a reaffirmation of the truism that you must follow "producer, producer, producer."
96 Points, Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate (Jan 2026)
Thistledown Sands of Time Grenache 2023 (Magnum) | Our Price $390
From the Trott vineyard in Blewitt Springs, planted in 1952 to deep sand. Fermented in alternating layers of whole bunches and crushed fruit in concrete; maturation in oak and concrete for 10 months. This is coiled but given air, the potential is evident, if not fully revealed. Blue and red floral notes, dark red cherries, orange oil and a humus-like earthiness. This is presently the most reticent member of the '23 grenache suite, with acidity feeling vigorous against the tensile complement of tannins, both cinching in the fruit presently. Based on the track record and the impeccable framing of fruit and site that's already evident, this will grow amply in stature, and what an exciting prospect that is.
97 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion (Aug 2024)
The 2023 Sands of Time Old Vine Single Vineyard Grenache leads with a floral, fragrant bouquet of Boscobel rose, crushed green (and salted) pistachios, licorice, clove, star anise and cracked fennel seeds. The wine is structurally fine and ductile; the tannins present us with an attractive framework of support and texture. It is gently chewy, layered with tobacco, iron and a hint of boudin noir. Suffice to say, this is a super wine, fragrant and detailed, long and complex. Yes!
97 Points, Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate (Mar 2024)
96 Points, The Real Review
Halliday Top 100 Wines 2024
Torbreck Les Amis Grenache 2022 | Our Price $213
My good mate used to live in the house next to the Slade vineyard. I've wandered these vines quite a few times with a Cooper's Pale in my hand; the vines are epic, gnarly old beasts, some of the best. Pure satsuma plum fruits daubed with souk-like spice along with hints of gingerbread, pomegranate, cola, char siu, biltong, dried citrus rind, some amaro herbs and an expression of blood orange. It's no airy, fragrant style. There's resonance and power here, abundant spice, bright acidity and a solid core of plum and ginger that rolls along nicely.
96 Points, Dave Brookes, Halliday Wine Companion (Jun 2025)
Vino Volta Pezzonovante Grenache 2023 | Our Price $45
"Grenache is historic, a little forgotten and yet a star variety of the Swan Valley. This fruit comes from old dry grown bush vines planted by the Scampolli family. The vineyard is near the base of the Darling Scarp consisting of gravel and sand over coffee rock. The vineyard is low yielding and of low vigour."
Vino Volta
I do like this example of an old bush vine-generated Swan Valley grenache. It was an outstanding year, and it has been captured so well. The nose is highly perfumed with scented rose petals and raspberry. In the winery, it was naturally fermented with some whole bunches using a pinot technique, and then matured only in old oak. So, this is about expressing the fruit, which it does quite beautifully. The tannins have a degree of suppleness, and yet they harness perfectly and shape the palate through to its sustained finish. A first-rate wine.
96 Points, Ray Jordan, WA Wine Review
Willunga 100 Trott Vineyard Grenache 2023 | Our Price $59
Sourced from Sue Trott's vineyard in Blewitt Springs off dry-grown bush vines planted in '52; soils are deep Maslin sand over clay and ironstone; 10% whole bunch, the remainder destemmed; 10 days on skins; matured in stainless steel. From a hallowed site, this is a deeply layered expression, though so transparent of making. Fruits flow through red and into black, with some sour plums jostling with the redcurrant jelly and ripe wild-raspberry notes, Baharat spices, bergamot, tamarind paste and warmed star anise. Even at this early stage, there is a deeply meditative quality to the expression, a wine speaking clearly of fruit, place and a beneficial (if difficult) season.
96 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion (Aug 2024)
Yangarra High Sands Grenache 2023 | Our Price $261
This year, Pete Fraser will launch the High Sands, Ovitelli and Hickinbotham together, giving a better chance to view the connectivity. Well, there is certainly a theme in the '23s. A degree of alcohol less, lower colour and a commanding, yet incredibly fine, structural framework. This is a very different High Sands, a reflection of the cool year, but also an evolving direction, leaning into elegance, soaring fragrance and savoury tension. Red cherry, tart raspberry, intensely floral, swirling with North African spices, musk and orange peel. The palate is coiled at this stage, but the fruit has flex and will bloom with time in bottle, radiating out from the core of mineral-feeling tannin and skein of vigorous acidity. This is truly magnificent now, but the future is one of dazzling possibility.
98 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion (May 2025)
The 2023 High Sands Grenache is a magnificent wine. It routinely is, and nothing dulls the excitement of looking at the new vintage each year. While the Ovitelli and Clarendon Grenaches see no oak, they are exclusively in ceramic egg and amphorae, this High Sands does see a small percentage of older thick-stave Austrian puncheons, the effect of which is profound on the wine. It opens up the weave of the tannins and somehow exposes the length of flavour. The texture on the palate is gritty and sandy and yet fine, while the flavours of raspberry, watermelon, pink peppercorn, cold tea, anise and rose petals ooze from every juncture. I like this so much. It's one of the very greatest Grenaches in Australia, and it's looking so restrained in this cool and wet vintage.
97 Points, Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate (May 2025)
96 Points, James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com
95 Points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
Yangarra Old Vine Grenache 2023 | Our Price $45
From the estate's 1946-planted bush vines. Half whole berries, half crushed, with gentle pump overs and extended maceration on some parcels up to seven months; matured in older French puncheons, foudre, ceramic eggs and amphorae. This is quite a different wine to the 2022. That's a tale of two seasons. Both cool, but the buttress of natural tannin in the 2022 is commanding and it is more compressed, needing time. This is prettily lifted, with cherry, cranberry, rosehip, dried orange peel, wild raspberry and red florals. It's a gloriously fine and elegant expression of this cuvée, but it has tannic drive, line and length, savouriness, flavour depth and detail. Excellent.
96 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion (Aug 2024)
Winemaker Peter Fraser knows a thing or two about Grenache and this is an example of how he has finessed the fruit from this cooler vintage to create a wine of elegance and refinement. The savoury dried herbs of Blewitt Springs bring it to a vibrant highly energised palate. In many ways atypically Australian, but very much a part of this regional and vineyard expression.
95 Points, Ray Jordan, Winepilot (Oct 2024)
95 Points, James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (Oct 2024)
95 Points, Cassandra Charlick, Winepilot (Mar 2025)
95 Points, Shanteh Wale, Winepilot (Dec 2024)
95 Points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
Sixteen glasses. Saturday, August 15th, 3–5pm, $295.
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