A Century in the Sand: The Story of Our Grenache

Some wines begin with a vision. This one began with a patch of sand.

Sand that is millions of years old, brought inland by ocean breezes at the end of the last Ice Age and dropped onto the flats of McLaren Vale. Unconsolidated and free flowing, this sand became the home of many a family vineyard planted, often with Grenache, a century ago.

Grenache became a workhorse of the South Australian wine industry in the early 20^th century, valued for its reliability and for its use in the fortified wines so popular at the time. But few growers back then would have imagined their vineyards producing some of Australia's most sought-after wines decades later. 

In fact, Grenache spent much of the latter half of the twentieth century decidedly out of fashion. It was only when a new generation of winemakers began to appreciate its perfume, delicate structure and remarkable ability to express its origins, at the turn of this century, that its fortunes changed.

The vines, of course, had been there all along.

Phil and Kevin loved this new iteration of Grenache because it had all the hallmarks of the wines they sought out – complex, aromatic, subtle rather than the bombastic fruit explosions that South Australia became known for in recent years.   

With winemaker Phil Christensen, they sought out small parcels of fruits from the sandy soils found around McLaren Flat and Blewitt Springs and settled on two vineyards just a few hundred of metres apart.

In both places, the vines are over a hundred years old. They’ve survived the Great Depression, the Second World War, over a hundred Australian summers including years-long droughts, changing wine fashions and the axe – when a 1980s government vine-pull scheme prompted growers to rip out some three-quarters of old grenache vines.  

Compact bunches of grenache hanging off the old vines (l) and being harvested in 2024 (r). 

There’s no doubt, these vines have history and they produce fruits with a character we couldn't resist.

There is concentration, certainly, but not heaviness. Red fruit and perfume give way to spice, earthiness and savoury complexity, with fine tannins carrying everything through. Across vintages, the balance shifts — as it should — but that underlying character remains.

Apparently, we're not the only ones who think there's something rather special in the result.

Our 2023 100 Year Old Vines Grenache was awarded Gold and 95 points at the London International Wine Challenge, making it the highest-scoring Grenache entered that year. The judges found it “expressive and well-integrated” with “generous red-berry freshness”. The Real Review chimed in: “The length is impressive and there's a real seamlessness and balance”.

And now another vintage from those old vines is ready to leave us. Our 2024 edition has just been released and it brings its own expression of those two little vineyards — perfumed and richly fruited, with red and dark fruits, spice and fine, structured tannins. 

The Halliday Wine Companion has awarded our 2024 100 Year Old Vines Grenache 93 points, describing the fruit as “pristine”. The Real Review, 91 points, called it “ a bright ruby in the glass” which is “lushly fruited on the palate”, and Sam Kim, 96 points, called it a “a gorgeous rendition”.

We'd love you to try it and marvel at the vines' age as you do. And let us know if you can taste the history!