James Suckling 2021 Domaine Clarendon Grenache Review
Domaine Clarendon Grenache
James Suckling.com released some scores overnight and Im very pleased to announce Clarendon Hills featured its latest release Domaine Clarendon Grenache 2021 within the article. The Clarendon Hills 2021 Grenache collection has just been nationally released and these are some of the first scores we’ve received on them.
Domaine Clarendon Grenache is a regional wine that highlights the best Grenache terroir in the world, Blewitt Springs, McLaren Vale. 3 extremely old bush vine single vineyards comprise the making of the wine and it represents an exceptional value at $30 a bottle. Ned Goodwin MW for James Suckling.com intimates this in his review:
James Suckling 2021 Domaine Clarendon Grenache Review – 93/100
This is exceptional value. The golden egg in an aspirational suite of once-considerable repute. Molten raspberry bonbons, squelched raspberries and booze, coating the mouth with the first sip. Cranberry, pomegranate, peony, lavender, thyme and rose hip, yet there is nothing anodyne or pulpy about this. Mercifully, there are tannins. The oak is being reshuffled here, to my pleasure. A bit stalky. A little hot. But lots to praise. Drink or hold. Diam.
Ned Goodwin MW, May 2023
James Suckling.com
The 2021 vintage is quickly becoming known as the Goldilocks vintage. ‘Not too hot, not too cold. It’s just right.’ As the fabled story explains, this is exactly the conditions we experienced across the growing year. A booming 2020 springtime loaded with lots of sun and water encouraged early to mid-season bud burst and these exceptional conditions ensured the vines flourished and subsequently set approximately 25% of additional yield in comparison to the microscopic 2020 harvest. A long and not too-hot summer gracefully ripened the vines and we started picking around mid-March, with the entirety of the Grenache picked before April we had a winery full of excellent wines right from day 1 of the harvest. The conditions paved the way for excellent acid retention and freshness and all wines demonstrated their complexities at very early stages in their lives. The grenache was no exception and I can remember excitedly tasting the wines in barrel across their first 18 months of life. The Domaine Clarendon Grenache always had an excellent floral rose perfume and has amazingly pure raspberry and strawberry fruit undertones. The integrated natural acidity illuminates intense raspberry flavours for all to see on the palate. The perfect accompaniment to any meal.