Thistledown: Sold-Out & Award-Winning
12 Wines, Four Grenaches, Two Sittings
Grenache was the grape Australia spent thirty years pulling out of the ground.
Giles Cooke MW and Fergal Tynan MW came from Scotland and reached the opposite conclusion: that the old bush vines of McLaren Vale and the Barossa were sitting on something the rest of the world would pay attention to, if anyone made the wine properly. Concrete, whole bunches, seasoned oak, no makeup. The results now sell out on release.
Twelve wines. A grenache flight of four, from Blewitt Springs deep sand to Eden Valley ironstone, including Sands of Time off vines planted in 1952 and rated 97 points. Then the shiraz, finishing on a 2022 Where Eagles Dare that Decanter scored 98.
Monday, September 21st
Hosted by Patrick Gilhooly
Masterclass: 5.30–7pm | 12 wines & canapes | $95
Dinner: 7.30–9.30pm | 12 wines and 4 courses | $180
"The nose is pretty, violets and a blackberry hedge in the morning mist, like a subdued French perfume, all nuance and suggestion rather than overt statement. A grand, handsome wine, elegantly constructed."
98 Points, David Sly, Decanter
Two Masters of Wine and a Grape Nobody Wanted
Giles Cooke and Fergal Tynan are both Masters of Wine, both Scottish, and both spent years buying Australian wine for the British market before deciding they could do better themselves. Thistledown was built around a single conviction: that Australia's old grenache vines, many of them planted before the Second World War and most of them dry-grown bush vines, were among the most undervalued vineyard assets in the wine world.
The winemaking is deliberately quiet. Wild ferments, a high proportion of whole bunches, concrete and seasoned oak rather than new barrels, and as little intervention as the fruit allows. Marcus Ellis described the Sands of Time approach precisely: the ferments "are not worked, just managed; the transparency of making is a magnifying glass on place."
That transparency is why a flight of four Thistledown grenaches is worth sitting down for. Same variety, same hands, same year in three of the four. What changes is the dirt: the deep sands and ironstone of Blewitt Springs, the quartz-studded loam of the old bush vine sites, the 1952-planted Trott vineyard, and the Eden Valley's Trial Hill. You can taste the map.
Meet your host… Patrick Gilhooly
The combination of year backpacking in Australia in 2003, working for a Burgundy importer in Melbourne, then doing vintage in the beautiful Yarra Valley, inspired Paddy’s passion for a full time career in wine.
After holding various commercial wine sales roles and achieving his WSET Diploma, Paddy relocated to Australia in 2014 to work with Thistledown.
Since 2014, as Director of Sales and all around brand champion, Paddy has opened various markets internationally and increased Thistledown’s distribution in Australia.
The Wine List
First Bracket: the whites
2025 Thistledown ‘Gorgeous’ Grenache Blanc
New Release
Tasting note to follow from the producer.
2024 Thistledown ‘Walking with Kings’ Roussanne Grenache Blanc
95 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
“Lifted orchard florals and fruits with pear, golden and pink apples, brown spices and ginger, aromatically complex, fragrant but not overt. The palate has a similar quiet complexity, succulent acidity paired with citrus-pith tension and neatly judged textural flex. A very fine expression. Drink by 2032.”
2024 Thistledown Suilven Chardonnay
96 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
“Back after a couple of years’ hiatus. Fermented wild in seasoned oak with a portion in ceramic egg. Refinement is king, classic chardonnay winemaking present but quietly so; elegant, taut fruit with no lack of intensity, suspended on vigorous ripe acidity and a chalky structural pithiness. White stone fruit, crisp golden apple, Lisbon lemon, ground ginger, clove and allspice. Excellent, with the bones to age. Drink by 2035.”
Second Bracket: two shiraz, two valleys
2023 Thistledown ‘Cunning Plan’ McLaren Vale Shiraz
95 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
“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 and light violet florals. Like last year there’s an effortlessness, mid-weighted ease and supple texture, its composure and flow quietly compelling. Drink by 2032.”
2022 Thistledown ‘The Quickening’ Barossa Valley Shiraz
95 Points, David Sly, Decanter
“Eden Valley fruit gives vibrant purple notes that capture brightness and vitality. Luscious and opulent on opening, with sharp redcurrant and wild raspberry crowding around black hedge fruits before black pepper starts to bite mid-palate, accentuating crunch and crisp structure. The sharp closure of fine-grained tannins and long acid line running underneath makes this deeply satisfying.”
Third Bracket: four grenaches, and you can taste the map
2025 Thistledown The Vagabond Grenache
New Release
Tasting note to follow from the producer.
2025 Thistledown She’s Electric Grenache
95 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
“From old bush vines on red-brown sandy loam studded with quartz and ironstone. Natural yeast, 50% whole bunches, eight months in old oak. Medium-weighted and serenely elegant, with quietly commanding, pithy, crunchy tannins drawing long. Wild cherries, pomegranate, damson plum, Campari, white peppery spice. Real charm now with a lot wound within, the most finessed release of this I can recall. Drink by 2036.”
2025 Thistledown Sands of Time Grenache
97 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
“From the 1952-planted Trott vineyard. A distinct imprint of site, with a super-gentle touch: 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, more earthy, with black spice notes and bergamot tea. Red and black cherry, rosehip, quite floral if subdued. More refined each year, another superb release. Drink by 2038.”
2024 Thistledown Fool on the Hill Grenache
96 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
“Fermented in concrete pyramid with 20% whole bunches; 11 months in seasoned French oak. From a new site to the brand, the Trial Hill vineyard. Speaks the Thistledown dialect: expressly pure fruited yet intrinsically savoury, floral, elegant yet deep, finely but properly structured. The usual cohort of red fruits, a little more earthy and spicy than its Vale peers. Day two is when it truly shines, more fragrant with musk and souk spices. Drink by 2034.”
Fourth Bracket: the top shiraz, and two vintages of Where Eagles Dare
2024 Thistledown Where Eagles Dare Shiraz
95 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
“Always from Joel Matschoss’s Eden Valley vineyard, though from this vintage the source is his new-but-old Trial Hill site, off contour-planted old vines. A different expression, more medium-bodied and brimming with red fruits, with a kinship to the house grenache bottlings, transparency and an assertively natural chewy tannic feel. Darkly ripe raspberry, sour cherry, wild scrubby herbs, tapenade, woodsmoke and exotic spices. Drink by 2034.”
2022 Thistledown Where Eagles Dare Shiraz
98 Points, David Sly, Decanter
“The nose is pretty, violets and a blackberry hedge in the morning mist, like a subdued French perfume, all nuance and suggestion rather than overt statement. The fruit speaks with the same understated confidence, from a single Eden Valley vineyard. Measured blackberry, biting tart blackcurrant and cranberry high notes, all drawn taut into a long savoury finish. A grand, handsome wine, elegantly constructed.”
2022 Thistledown Bachelor’s Block Shiraz
96 Points, David Sly, Decanter
“Sturdy black berries sourced from this single vineyard in the Ebenezer sub-region have power, purpose and extraordinary clean, long flavours. This is serious: fine-grained black tea tannins crowd around sharply defined berry flavours and taper the finish to a perfect soft landing.”