Aphelion - From Strength to Strength

What a difference 12 months makes? We tried this on release (nearly 12 months ago) and found it a bit angular and raw. A hard act to follow off the back of the remarkably good 2022. Well having revisited this recently, it's a different wine. It's really settled into itself with the stiff shoulders being replaced with gentle mouthfeel and seamless edges. It's far more complete: now being expressive and assured. Medium framed with ballooning aromatics of red cherry/glazed cherry, orange zest and slightly grainy tannin. This sits alongside a number of other straight Grenache wines from this part of the world which really contend to be the best in Australia. - Ches Cook, Five Way Cellars.

It has a fine track record. Raspberry, cranberry, pomegranate, a steely/ozone top note, some dried flower perfume. It’s medium-bodied, strawberry and raspberry, a little youthful jubey character, light grip of pumice stone tannin, a crispness to acidity, some orange peel bite, with a bright finish of good length. Nice. 92+ points. - Gary Walsh, Wine Front.

A wine we have been loving for a few years now. It’s more restrained than the Grenache Blanc that sits along side it in the range. This has a nice taut frame with fruit flavours that span red and green apple and crunchy white peach. There’s an intensity of flavour that carries nicely through the finish of the wine and presumably comes from the low-yielding vines where fruit is taken from – planted in the 1970s. – Ches Cook, Five Way Cellars.

Grenache Blanc from the Yangarra Vineyard. Pear, honeydew melon, some aromatic herbs and spice. It’s a gently chalky affair with some pithy bitterness, pear and again that perfume of herbs, a little bit waxy too, and finishes quite dry with grip and a slightly saline aftertaste. Nice wine. A textural style.  92 points. - Gary Walsh, Wine Front.