Description
JAMES SUCKLING 94 POINTS – “The 2022 vintage was a Euro-styled year of poise with plenty of fruit weight and immense freshness… Savory. I’ll take that over obvious sweetness any day… A sub-regional blend limited to old, dry-grown bush vines. Varying degrees of whole bunches. A number of picking windows, too, to embellish freshness and enough weight. Ambient fermentation. One would be hard-pressed to find a better wine than this for the price. Kirsch, ume, cranberry, bergamot… pixelated tannin, sandy of feel, directing length. Drink or hold. Screw cap.” – Ned Goodwin MW
WINE ADVOCATE 93 POINTS – “This is a super little wine. The 2022 Thorny Devil Grenache is spicy, supple and shaped, as all the Thistledown Grenaches are, by ductile, flowing tannins in the mouth. This has shape and form, but it is also a plump, cushioned little number that gives all manner of pleasure. It’s a generous, smiling little thing, delicious. There are notes of blood, raspberry, red licorice and ferrous. It is sapid as all get up. 14% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.”
Thistledownis among the “new guard”for Australianwine, out to show how they can bring delicious ripenesswithout sacrificing balancein their features and clarityin their aromas. These wines are bold and expressive, like the labels that adorn them!
Founders Giles Cooke, MW and Fergal Tynan, MW started Thistledown in 2010, having met years earlier in their Master of Wine (MW) program. With their deep understanding of wine, they sought to make the “pure and precise” Grenache and Shirazthey knew to be possible in the famous McLaren Valeand the Barossawine regions. The vineyards they source are older, and their fermentations occur spontaneously; they include some whole clusters, which contribute to some of the savor and spice, as well as that boost in aromatic expressivenesswe love. To preserve the integrity of the wines, they don’t undergo fining(so they’re also vegan).
This has the vibrancyand relative firmnesstypical of McLaren Vale, which balances out Grenache’s tendencytoward soft, high-alcohol wines. It comes from classic Grenache farming: old vinesthat are bush-trainedand without irrigation. Aged 10 months in French oak hogsheads.
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