2024 McLaren Vale Grenache Rosé
TASTING NOTE
A dry style of Rose, showing fresh aromatics of ripe citrus, floral rose aromatics, red berries and hints of stone fruits.
The palate has flavours of blood orange, pomegranate, red currants and background guava with a backbone of fine acidity, some minerality and a lingering finish.
VINEYARD
A blend of Grenache fruit from younger vines giving fresh fruit aromas and flavours, combined with Grenache fruit from 50-year-old dry grown bush vines for depth, spice, and complexity.
The young vineyard block of Grenache was planted from cuttings taken from the 100 year old Smart vineyard that we use for one of our single vineyard wines.
The vines are grown in sandy soils over ironstone in the Blewitt Springs sub region of McLaren Vale and benefit from the cooling breezes flowing down from the Mount Lofty Ranges and in from the nearby coast.
VINTAGE
The season started with a dry winter and start to spring - warm days and quite cool nights meant a slow start to shoot growth, and smaller crops in some early flowering varieties. In mid- November the weather pattern changed to give us a lot of rain and some humidity, which helped with shoot growth and to improve crop levels, but was challenging in the vineyards to keep disease under control. In early January the rain stopped thankfully, and we had dry conditions right the way through harvest, so disease was much less of an issue than it could have been. A few short heat waves provided some challenges, but generally the wine quality is very good.
WINE MAKING
Hand-harvested and gently pressed, this dry style rosé underwent a slow and cool fermentation in stainless steel with extended time on lees ad regular stirring to build texture and mouthfeel. Wine is vegan friendly.
FOOD PAIRING
Salt and pepper calamari with garlic aioli and a squeeze of lemon or steamed fish with ginger.
WINEMAKER
Renae Hirsch