LEASK GRENACHE
Plenty of cherry and raspberry fruit, pine needle and clove spice, to reel you in. Blood orange, tangerine, and mint. The palate is vibrant and succulent, crunchy red berry fruit, pomegranate, fine sandy tannins, finishing with a savoury and earthy edge. A very natural feeling drinking this wine, which tastes like the place it came from, a lightness of being, transparent of a special place in the Vale. Please serve in a large glass or decant for one hour before serving to allow the tension in the wine to release.
Reviews of 2020 Leask Grenache:
92 points, Winepilot, Jeni Port, May 2024:
Welcoming and bright in personality is definitely what you like to see in a four-year-old. The fragrance is aromatic and lifted in wildflower, musk, juniper and red berries. Takes a darker course on the palate, building in depth and intensity, revealing a more serious side – once again, something you might expect and definitely like to see in a flagship wine. The power of the Grenache fruit is impressive and solid in dark plum, black cherry, earth, clove, black pepper wrapped in supple tannins and with good persistence, it’s an easy wine to get to love. That extra spark of peppery spice towards the finish lifts what is, at its heart, a relatively weighty, ripe, McLaren Vale Grenache.
97 points, Decanter, David Sly, January 2024:
Much is suggested on a vivacious nose, but beneath soft and cuddly red-fruited flavours, lean and powerful dark fruit muscle flexes in the mid-palate. A whole cohesive package. Very elegant and sinewy for a wine with such a deliberate drive at its core. One to contemplate. 10% whole bunch, matured 13 months in three-year-old 400-litre French oak puncheons.
91 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin MW:
Old vines, dating from the 1940’s. Fermented wild in open-top fermenters. A brief maceration compared to the regional vanguard, with just 11 days on skins. Three years in used 400L French wood. Whole-berry aromatics of kirsch, rosewater and mulled wine. A swathe of menthol-laced tannins define the mid palate, while drying the finish. There is a lightness of being. A welcome pliancy, too. Just too minty.
Reviews of 2019 Leask Grenache:
93 points, James Suckling 2021, Nick Stock:
Fresh raspberry, wild-herb and wet-stone aromas here with pomegranate and blood orange, as well as dried flowers. The palate holds a succulent line of tannin and fresh, bright raspberries, together with kumquat and blood orange. I like the sturdiness here.
90 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin MW:
A pallid ruby, with a spindly shaft of fibrous tannins, crunchy red berry and pomegranate scents heralding better Vale grenache. A vibrant grenache, showcasing a transparent pinosity.
Reviews of 2018 Leask Grenache:
95 points, Jane Faulkner, James Halliday Wine Companion, August 2021:
Vines planted in the '40s, whole berry with 10% whole bunches, cultured yeast and aged in French puncheons for 17 months. There's a lightness across the palate from fine sandpaper tannins and cherry and raspberry fruit. It's a lovely wine with savoury inputs and not at all confected. A whiff of pine needle/Mediterranean herbs comes and goes.
92 points, James Suckling:
There's quite a fresh and attractively crisp feel to this gently bold expression of Christie's Beach Formation soil type. The berries tread the line from red to darker tones and there's a savory, earthy edge. The palate has a succulently, bold and fluid feel with attractive tannin grain and a little grip.
97 points, James Halliday 2020 Wine Companion :
The sparks fly. It's rare for such a light wine to feel so imposing. The fruit is crisp and spicy, aniseed notes almost seem unsweetened, there's mint served in ever-so-pure form, and the way tannin introduces tension to the wine's unfolding drama is quite exquisite. It's grenache in a sky full of diamonds. It's something.
Reviews of 2016 Grenache:
97 points,James Halliday, Wine Companion, August 2018:
The first 100% varietal grenache by Hither & Yon. Bright, clear colour; a perfumed rose petal, spice and red fruits bouquet, the palate 100% delicious. A beautiful, effortless achievement of perfection, the red fruits and satin smooth tannins show none of the hot alcohol, dead fruit characters that I'm sure other makers might have achieved. I'm marching off with this to drink tonight
Mike Bennie, WBM July 2018, 94 points:
Pretty, perfumed Grenache of high-toned floral and sweet spice fragrance, medium weight red berry fruitiness, a layer of vanilla-clove spice running riot. A plush, velvety feel to texture, too. Big tick for quality at price point. 14.2%, $80.
