This baker’s dozen brings together some of the best Grenache and GSM in the country — plus a drop of French happiness from the highly regarded and tiny Gadagne sub-region of the Rhône Valley. You’ll find old vines, 96-point winners, single vineyard treasures, and wines crafted by former Penfolds grape growers.
There’s Kim Brebach’s top-rated Grenache of the past year, a fascinating multi-clonal Barossa expression, and a French GSM from the Southern Rhône to round things off. That’s 13 bottles of spice, plushness, and regional character — all drinking beautifully right now.
Red fruited, black fruited, aromatic, juicy, rich, with satsuma plum fleshiness and juice. Cloves, smoked meat, cinnamon and spice. Powerful! Opens superbly with decanting and definitely worth having with food. This is an organic and biodynamic wine. There is a little CO2 trapped in the wine as a preservative, so give it a vigorous decant before drinking.
Kilikanoon grow or buy a vast quantity of Clare Grenache - no surprise then that they produce some of the finest Grenache in the Valley. They also arguably produce the region's best Shiraz, 'hello Kilikanoon Revelation and Attunga'. Their GSMs also fare well - the current $40 a bottle Baudinet having picked up multiple trophies. So, we're very excited to introduce the first ever Kilikanoon Meymans GSM, a mid-weight, complex and textural beast which offers comforting blue and black fruit, spice and whisper fine tannins. We love it.
The Lienert’s have been farming in the Barossa for 150 years and decided to add some vines to their property about 20 years ago. The first fruit from 2004 and 2005 vintages went straight to the pool room, aka into Penfold’s St Henri. Funnily enough they then planted a lot more vines and introduced many more clonal variations of Shiraz and Grenache. This Grenache is a brilliant amalgam of aromatics and pristine fruit, thanks to the careful clonal selection and extensive blending trials undertaken before settling on the final ‘just right blend’. Whilst called Sieben Klon (Seven Clones) the Grenache actually includes 8 separate clones. This vintage is a little lighter, yet more aromatically lifted than the 21 vintage. It’s a cracker.
Gold - Royal Adelaide Wine Show, 94pts Kim Brebach, 92pts Qwinereviews.com, 3 x Gold Medal
The first GSM released by Purple Hands with previous editions having led with Mataro. From our perspective, also the best Grenache blend they have released to date and one of their very best wines overall. Fantastic fragrance here, along with spice, redcurrant, plum, chocolate, cedar and more. Has a tensile aspect which gives this life and lift in a fashion which very few wines can achieve. Exceptional length and a total joy to drink.
One tiny 80 year old Barossa Grenache vineyard. 100% whole bunch. 12 months in French oak. Mid weight, with delightful red fruits, spice and cedar. Sandy tannins to finish- a cracker.
