Chateau de Beaucastel Hommage à Jacques Perrin is a monumental wine, made only in top vintages. The wine was first produced in 1989 as a tribute to Jacques Perrin, who died in 1978. Atypical for Chateauneuf-du Pape, the Hommage is a Mourvèdre dominant blend sourced from low-yielding old vines. Deeply concentrated and powerful, it possesses immense capacity to age.

Thistledown Wines Fool on the Hill Grenache, Eden Valley Thistledown Wines are a leading name in the who’s-who of Australia’s modern grenache movement out of some of South Australia’s finest regions. The Fool on the Hill Grenache is sourced from two dry-grown plots high in the Eden Valley. The soils are tricky to work with, but the results are more than evident that the hard work required to yield Fool on the Hill has been worth it. Lifted aromatics pair with a palate of textural, chewy body with dark cherry, spice, and a refreshing line of minerality.

THISTLEDOWN WINES Walking With Kings, McLaren Vale A Rhône inspired white which takes the richly textured Roussanne and blends with the crisp, green apple and citrus of Grenache Blanc to create a wine of real balance and complexity. Hand-picked Roussanne from Sellicks Hills, biodynamic Grenache Blanc from Kangarilla. Both varieties are hand picked and fermented separately. Roussanne is whole bunch pressed, lightly settled and wild fermented in French oak. Grenache is oxidatively handled prior to wild ferment in barrel. The two components blend prior to bottling.

The old bush vine vineyard is considered a prized Premier Cru vineyard by the winemaking team at Clarendon Hills. Sourced from this single vineyard planted in the 1940’s and located in the famously deep sands of McLaren Vale, The Clarendon Hills Blewitt Springs Grenache is a showstopper. The wine expresses red and black cherry, blood orange, musk, violets, crushed rock and baking spice, with a talcum-like textured mouthfeel and long finish.

The Torbreck Les Amis Grenache is aged for 18 months in new oak and is a remarkably fragrant wine that shows abundant aromas of spice, cherry and wild raspberry. Textured and plush on the palate, it evolves into layers of blackberry and red currants with firm, ripe tannins. David Powell continues to lead this formidable Barossa wine estate to truly remarkable heights.

In 2002 John Duval left Penfolds after 29 years (17 as Chief Winemaker) and established his own, eponymous label. Plexus Shiraz Grenache Mourvèdre (first vintage 2003) was the inaugural John Duval Wines release. As Duval says: in a region (the Barossa Valley) that boasts the oldest Shiraz, Grenache and Mourvèdre vines in the world, I decided to focus on this famous Barossa Valley blend. Plexus is typically 50% Shiraz, 30% Grenache and 20% Mourvèdre. Shiraz provides the blackberry core and structural backbone. Old vine, low yielding Grenache (some over 100 years old) provides aromatics and texture. Old vine, low yielding Mourvèdre (the oldest well over 100 years old) add savoury, spice and earthy notes. Stylistically, Duval is not aiming for the fruit bomb, high alcohol interpretation; rather Plexus aims to be a respectful, elegant expression of very old Barossa Valley vineyards. Plexus sees 100% barrel maturation in 300 litre French oak hogsheads (only 10% new). While drinking well as a young wine, Plexus matures well, showing a complex array of savoury and mature berry notes and a generous core of sweet fruit and soft tannins.

The grapes for this wine come from various vineyards in four specified, named villages of the Gard district of Provence, near Avignon. This part of France is also the home of the Tavel and Lirac appellations. Les Becs Fins is 60% Grenache from vines planted in the late 1950s and 40% Syrah from vines planted in the 1980s. All vineyards are farmed organically on pebbly soils. After fermentation the wine matures for 10 months in concrete tanks before bottling without fining or filtration. The winemaking style is hands-off, with as little artifice as possible. The aim is to produce a wine showing pure fruit characters.