MMAD Grenache 2022

The second release of the MMAD Vineyard label, and off its 1939-planted Blewitt Springs vineyard. About 15% whole bunches, fermented in wood and steel, maturation in concrete and large old French oak. Unlike the 2022 shiraz, this takes time to emerge from the glass. It’s all there, though. There’s a brooding quality at present, with nori, iodine and ferrous notes filtering up through dark red cherry, plum, raspberry and sultry florals. Some spicy, musky characters emerge with air. Tannin is a meaningful factor, a pleasingly natural grape-derived affair, ruggedbut never rustic. A seriously compelling wine, and further proof of how thrilling McLaren Vale grenache is right now, for both its quality and the unparalleled diversity in top-flight expressions. Marcus Ellis - Halliday Wine Companion - 97 pts

This is ballistically good. I doubt that I’ll taste anything much better from these shores over the next 12 months. The first thing you notice is the plushness, which always welcome, bits its the finish that takes things to eleven. Wow, really, wine has a show-stopping finish on it. Its blessed with red and blue berry flavours, cedar wood, roasted spice and earth, but itemising the flavours of this wine kind of misses the point. Its like focussing on the colour of a tidal wave. The complete and utter command of the final flourish of flavour and tannin here feels, as you swallow, like a high water mark. I’m sold, totally sold, on this wine. Campbell Mattinson - Wine Front - 97 pts

A sumptuously perfumed grenache with no shortage of structural exactitude and the tension that comes with it. Lilacs, tapenade, raspberry coulis, freshly picked strawberries and anise. Dried lavender and rosemary are bound to the tannic latticework. Salty and nourishing, with the warmth of umami across the long finish. Ned Goodwin - James Suckling - 96 pts