Located less than an hour’s drive from Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, McLaren Vale is a beachside playground carpeted in vineyards, olive groves and almond orchards. Greek and Italian immigrants settled here decades ago, many involved in grape and olive production because the coastline reminded them of life around the Mediterranean.
The vibe of the place is very much driven by the pursuit of simple living underpinned by quality food and wine. The Mediterranean aura has inspired winemakers to make wines that are simpatico with this (think medium-bodied reds) and, most recently, the planting of varieties like aglianico, nero d’Avola, touriga, primitivo, mencia, sagrantino, vermentino and fiano.
However, the region is still best known for shiraz and that remains a staple, accounting for more than 50 percent of the vineyards. Cabernet sauvignon has long performed well here too, albeit in the shadow of shiraz. The other wine style that has long been a staple of the region is grenache. Grenache has transformed in the past decade from the little wine that could, to the most exciting wine on offer. It is now re-writing the script of the region and re-defining the story of great McLaren Vale wine.
Historically the region has been one whose heroes are brands and characters, a region of the people and culture. This has served the place well and both individuals and families have built a very lovable aura of good times and a life not taken too seriously around the Vale. But grenache is leading a new campaign that sees vineyard and terroir become the hero on different terms, driving a level of interest and commitment from growers and winemakers, as well as soaring interest and engagement from trade and consumers.
Grenache has transformed in the past decade from the little wine that could, to the most exciting wine on offer. It is now re-writing the script of the region and re-defining the story of great McLaren Vale wine.
The hallowed ground of grenache here is an area to the north-east of the region. It is a triangular section which runs from Clarendon at the highest elevation in the north through Blewitt Springs which sits to the southeast and down to Lower Tintara, then out towards Kangarilla in the west and back north along the foothills and up to Clarendon again. “This is a cooler part of the region,” explained Peter Fraser of Yangarra. “And the sandy soils out here are perfect for grenache.”
More producers are gathering around the grenache space and often we see several producers sourcing from a single grower, championing site-driven character and quality. Think Burgundy or Piedmont. The leading McLaren Vale grenache producers include S.C. Pannell, Yangarra, Aphelion, Ochota Barrels, Ministry of Clouds, Thistledown, Bekkers, Samuel’s Gorge, Paralian, Bondar, Brash Higgins, and World’s Apart. There’s a veritable army of winemaker talent clustered around this grenache space making many great wines that are packed with interest.
More than a third of the 130-odd grenache wines tasted in this report achieved a rating of 93 points or above. At the pinnacle and all rated 98 points you’ll find Ochota Barrels Grenache McLaren Vale A Sense of Compression 2019, Yangarra Grenache McLaren Vale Ovitelli 2018 and Ochota Barrels Grenache McLaren Vale 186 2019.
Following them on 97 points are four more exceptional wines, the Yangarra Grenache McLaren Vale High Sands 2017, S.C. Pannell Grenache Clarendon Smart 2018, Thistledown Grenache McLaren Vale This Charming Man Old Vine Clarendon 2019 (also sourced from the Smart Vineyard) and the Ochota Barrels Grenache McLaren Vale Fugazi Vineyard 2019.
These top grenache wines all express unique site-driven character and are united by their crisply defined aromas, flavors and tannin structures and the fact that they retain this distinctive quality of freshness. “We make grenache wines that naturally land at a finished pH around 3.2,” said Steve Pannell of S.C. Pannell. “And we get these lovely fine, sandy, gritty tannins that are an inherent part of the variety.”
These are wines to drink now, in five years, in 10 years or longer. They have a structural x-factor that gives them instantly appealing drinkability as well as the propensity to age reliably.
Pannell is also making a bigger play into the grape varieties he believes are best suited to the region and much of this has to do with tannin. “In McLaren Vale we naturally make big, ripe wine and if you cook, for example, you don’t take something that’s big ripe and sweet and make it bigger and sweeter, you make it tighter and finer and more elegant,” he said. “I am trying to get an ideology behind making warm climate wines where you temper that inherent exuberance and balance the weight and the sweetness. Tannins are the number one asset to do this.”
Inspired by his work with nebbiolo in the adjacent Adelaide Hills region as well as in Piedmont, Pannell has started making aglianico, sagrantino and nero d’avola and the early results are packed with rich tannins. Mencia is another newcomer to the Vale and both Ministry of Clouds and Olivers Taranga are showing instant results. “Mencia is something that just delivers such deep flavors and full ripeness without losing any freshness and vitality,” said Oliver’s Taranaga winemaker Corrina Wright.
Wright is also a leading proponent of fiano, making one of the region’s most consistent examples alongside Coriole, who have a very consistent track record with the variety. Coriole has delivered many well-styled Italian varietals in this report. Also on the Mediterranean tip, rosé is a style that is naturally successful in McLaren Vale, although the category is still slightly underplayed. The potential is significant. Wright makes a mencia rosé that has attractive fresh, floral kick, Pannell’s ‘Arido’ is a great example of the pale and dry yet flavorful style and Yangarra makes a beautifully pale, elegant style that shows just why this is a category that can hit the target of the modern rosé trend.
Chester Osborn of d’Arenberg long ago ventured into the eclectic space of Mediterranean varieties and has been working with grapes like sagrantino, souzao, tempranillo, mencia, touriga nacional, aglianico and nero d’Avola. He works with 37 varieties here and many across a number of different soils and sub-regions. “When I started making wine here in the early 1980s I am sure a grape like mencia would just not have ripened,” he said. “Now it comes in just after shiraz and it makes complete sense. Who is is to say that shiraz, cabernet and grenache are the right varieties when you don’t try other grapes here?”
The stalwart red of shiraz is currently in a state of evolution with a broad spectrum of wine being made, as you would expect give the prevalence of plantings here. The best wines are made by producers seeking to work towards quality, balance and definition from the vineyard right through the winemaking process and these come in the form of single parcels and multi-parcel blends.
“Everyone used to make these big, obvious wines that were popular but weren’t wines that really connected strongly to the region,” said Wirra Wirra winemaker Paul Smith. “These days we are chasing the diversity of what the region can deliver, on different soils and at different elevations, and we utilize those different parcels to build wines or make single parcel bottlings.”
There’s a veritable army of winemaker talent clustered around this grenache space making many great wines that are packed with interest.
Shiraz is undeniably a strong hand for the region and today the best wines are generally more layered and detailed and balance power with freshness, whereas in days gone by they were really just about power.
Wines like the Ox Hardy Shiraz McLaren Vale 1891 Ancestor Vines 2010 (98 points) and the Ox Hardy Shiraz McLaren Vale Slate 2018 (96 points) as well as the Wirra Wirra Shiraz McLaren Vale RSW 2018 (95 points), Paralian Shiraz McLaren Vale Springs Hill Vineyard 2019 (94 points) and Yangarra Shiraz McLaren Vale King’s Wood 2018 (94 points) are all examples that plumb the extreme depth of flavor possible in McLaren Vale shiraz with multi-faceted structures and a thread of freshness and vitality. Big flavors are balanced so well and tannins are playing a strong role in balancing these wines as well as delivering good aging potential.
The two recent vintages of 2019 and 2018 have played into the hands of producers in different styles but both have delivered wines of real quality. The 2018 vintage was one with a classical shape to the season with good rainfall and that long, even and mild ripening period delivering good balance in terms of both sugar and tannin ripeness. Winemakers report that wines came together easily in the winery.
The 2019 was a hotter year and grapes ripened faster. The congestion and early harvest meant that winemakers had to be fast and attentive to catch the acceleration in the vineyard. Grenache is a star in 2019 (and 2018 for that matter) as it shows the ability to handle warmer seasons, in particular the older bush vine plantings that are seeing the light of day now. Some truly excellent wines were made.
This region is really firing on a range of fronts and delivering wines that suit the overall laid back, good quality and easygoing lifestyle and feel of the place. A new wave of grenache wines is elevating the tone of the region to a place of very high regard and hitting a fashionable target of provenance-driven quality and style. These wines have everybody talking about McLaren Vale and are building a new fan base. At the same time, the region continues to deliver some of Australia’s best value, most flavorsome and most loved red wines year after year.
– Nick Stock, executive editor
