Welcome to the release of the Clarendon Hills 2024 Vintage Old Vine Grenache. These wines are nothing short of superlative. A truly exceptional growing season across 2023 and 2024 forged a magical collection of Old Vine Grenache. If you like smelling roses and tasting cherry fruit in your wines, please look no further. A rare and exotic year where power and precision coexist in complete harmony and accentuate each other.
2023 was a text book El Nino climate across McLaren Vale and catered the full 12 months of the year with irregular weather patterns. Wetter than average conditions persisted right until the end of the year with particularly a humid November and above average rain in December. Heavy downpours continued well in to January and coupled with intense Summer warmth created humid and favourable conditions for disease pressure to enter the equation around veraison was taking shape. In what was a repeat of the previous 12 months, our viti team were spraying relentlessly across November to late January to prevent the onset of mildew.
The prevailing conditions suited a magnificent Grenache ripening seasoning. The warm weather coupled with the large canopies housing higher yields significantly played in to the hands of the varietal; with its large photosynthesis capabilities via its significant canopy surface area. Particularly when coupled with 90 year old, extremely deep roots the vines stood up to the idyllic conditions. This high glucose conversion factor ripened a record large crop. It was the largest we have ever received from this vineyard and quite possibly the best quality of fruit we’ve ever seen. It has 30 acres of 1946 planted Old Vine Grenache and also 8 acres of 1920 planted Grenache that supplies our Domaine Clarendon, Blewitt Springs and Romas Grenache. We received 43 tonnes of fruit in 2024 which equates to a bit over a 1.65 tonnes per acre. The grower here is located next to Trott vineyard, only the vines were planted first, in 1946, and was extremely pleased with the 2024 yields and quality nexus.
Throughout the entire production process: from grape sampling, to grapes arriving at the winery, to the crusher, to the tank, to the press, to the barrel; the 2024 wines have demonstrated a very special extra layer and dimension and sparked countless conversations and impromptu tasting congregations by the winemaking team. The extraordinary floral components and perfectly portrayed fruit core give these wines an uncanny precociousness to them. The wines have always demonstrated a wonderful signature floral and spice trace throughout the collection. The Grenache have always been so high pitched with deep fruit cores of strawberry and blueberry, but it’s their lifted and wafting rose petal and violet perfumes that really grab your attention.
Insights on the wines
2024 Domaine Clarendon Grenache
The 2024 Domaine Clarendon Grenache is wonderful and offers a great delivery of forest fruits and a medium weight with a fresh natural acidity underpinning the experience. Its a wine composed of a blend of all fruit from our various sites across Blewitt Springs and delivers a taste of world class McLaren Vale Grenache and begins the journey in our Grenache portfolio. Maraschino cherry, raspberry, strawberry, blood orange and Turkish delight with undertones of red frog and black olive all coexist harmoniously on the nose. The perfume is layered and every level is berry laden and generously weighted. On the palate, a slippery texture and a finely woven focal point of extract is buffered by fresh natural acidity and generous berries. The high level of natural acidity makes the berries appear extremely fresh, attractive and illuminated. The winemaker control of the fermentation and pressing extractions has rendered the palate with a nice portion of glycerol that coats the tongue and makes a smoothed yet textured experience. The fruit perfume and lighter weight on the palate makes an approachable style in its youth and suits a myriad of cuisine, particularly Cantonese. Smoked Tea Duck is a fantastic accompaniment to 2024 Domaine Clarendon Grenache.
2024 Blewitt Springs Old Vine Grenache
The phenomenal Clarendon Hills Blewitt Springs Old Vine Grenache has undergone a recent makeover with a beautiful musk purple colour addition to the label. While the packaging is different, so too, what’s inside the bottle has undergone a refinement. In an effort to strive to make better wine, we’ve been isolating the individual parcels and reviewing everything across its time in barrel and ultimately came to the conclusion that a particular section in the vineyard was the best and would elevate the overall standard of the wine if kept separate. Therefore now all other parts of the vineyard are separated and declassified for Domaine Clarendon Grenache. The result is less Blewitt Springs Old Vine Grenache but it would now be at the level of Onkaparinga and Romas Grenache. This is easily the best ever Blewitt Springs Old Vine Grenache we’ve ever released. The combination of the stricter selection and the exceptional 2023 vintage has relegated the new releases out of the stratosphere. Lifted cherry and Turkish delight, musk and women’s cosmetic aromas take this year’s expression to the next level.
2024 Onkaparinga Old Vine Grenache
The Onkaparinga Grenache patch has produced an extremely elegant expression in 2024. The purity of fruit is remarkable with fresh strawberry and cherry juice and spring time floral notes on the nose, the palate is ultra slippery and all the fine boned detail is revealed across the long and silky smooth finish with faintly sandy ripples of texture and lightly firm grit. The polish is remarkable and exotic notes of watermelon and quava, blood orange nuance the blueberry and cherry laden perfume and palate shadow. It’s the lightness of touch coupled with majestic depth that sets this wine apart. After 24 hours open, the nose is ethereal with lifted rose petal and iron filling notes. The lightness of palate coupled with a searing intensity on the nose makes for a thoroughly enjoyable wine to enjoy. It’s the lightest framed Grenache in our varietal bracket and the vineyard always delivers one of the most enjoyable wines in our portfolio. Coming in at 13.0% alcohol, its medium bodied, even light to medium bodied but the old vines furnish the fruit with majestic depth and soaring complexity.
2024 Romas Old Vine Grenache
The 2023 and 2024 growing season delivered an idyllic growing season for Old Vine Grenache in the 2024 vintage and magic of their seductive perfumes have been apparent since the moment the wines were pressed. The Romas in particular has always been very deeply wound with multi layered detail and a world class perfume of pure grenache. Black olive, raspberry and forest floor notes draw your attention deep inside the glass on arrival. With aeration more perfume emerges with terroir driven notes of crushed rock, iodine and graphite. Pleasingly with these earthy notes a deeper fruit foundation of blueberry, blood orange and red cherry with a feather of maraschino cherry bulk up the nose and provide substantial accompaniment. The overall composition on the nose is 50% fruit oriented notes and the remaining portion terroir driven crushed rock, petrichor and graphite elements. The expression on both the nose and palate speaks clearly of its terroir. It imparts a unique sense of place via its prominence of earth characters on not only the perfume but is further communicated via its fine boned structure and sandy like texture akin to the Blewitt Springs’ regional signature terroir. The wonderfully controlled tannin extraction during fermentation and pressing has forged a cuvee with super fine tannin that has length and a late prominence. The tannins are savoury in flavour with black olive and cherry skin notes. The high degree of natural acidity is again wonderfully controlled and it highlights a sheath of super fine tannin keeping everything coiled for many years of extension in the cellar.
Join us in celebration of these amazing releases. The 2024 vintage is a dream come true for Grenache lovers. You will not be disappointed with how well these Grenaches are drinking.
Alex Bratasiuk