Alkina Grenache Assembly Tasting: Beyond the Poor Man's Shiraz

Grenache is the most exciting thing that has happened to Australian wine culture in a lifetime, at least mine. So, I jumped at the opportunity to attend the second “Grenache Assembly,” as it is dubbed, held at Alkina Wine Estate in the Barossa Valley last month. A bunch of journalists, sommeliers and another Master of Wine were alongside.

Alkina’s wines are firmly established amid the firmament of top Australian producers of grenache, of which I personally count fewer than a dozen. The reality is there are those who farm with integrity and craft their wines with an assiduous attention to detail, while there are also those, still the majority, who treat grenache like poor man’s shiraz, as if to spite grenache’s very different physiognomy and behavior patterns. Perhaps I am speaking of an elite group of grenache producers such as Yangarra, Thistledown, Aphelion, Bondar, Paralian, S.C. Pannell, Thomas St Vincent and Bekkers, as well as Alkina, who all share the very top drawer.

Grenache is well suited to a warm climate as a late ripener, while shiraz is better in a temperate one. Grenache is oxidative; shiraz is inherently reductive. It stands to reason, then, that grenache does not like small-format wood very much and little, to zero, new oak. Grenache is also moderate of acidity and yet, paradoxically, much like assrytiko in Santorini, low in pH. As a result, when extracted courageously its tannins are more assertive with a grittier feel than analysis suggests. The pH is “a tannin trigger,” said Steve Pannell, the winemaker-owner of S.C. Pannell. Pete Fraser of Yangarra believes that grenache is at its best in cooler, prolonged vintages in warm regions where those tannins can ripen to perfection.

Indeed, the best Australian examples “feel almost like nebbiolo,” according to Langhe specialist and importer David Ridge, who was also in attendance. Aromas range from kirsch and rose hip to  bergamot and dried thyme, at least in simple terms. But there is so much more! The best, too, boast a pinoté, manifest as lightness of being, transparency and versatility at the table.

In essence, grenache feels right in most of Australia, particularly in McLaren Vale but increasingly too in Barossa, the Swan, Margaret River and Great Southern. It feels intuitive and seldom forced in good hands. While the Vine Pull Scheme robbed Australia of many old vines and an even richer patrimony, leaving a mere 1,500 hectares of grenache today (versus shiraz’s 40,000-plus hectares), the country’s top sites and their gnarled bush vines are awe-inspiring. Grenache catapults Australia’s best iterations into the pantheon of top wines from around the world, something that is not as easily said when it comes to other varietal expressions. Australia’s best grenache readily equals and often exceeds top examples from more established regions, as the tasting demonstrated.

For the Grenache Assembly, there were three flights of eight wines. Notes and scores may differ slightly from the originals in our database due to additional time in bottle, provenance, the taster or otherwise. Wine, after all, is a living thing. It changes!

– Ned Goodwin MW

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