Grenache

Reviews of 2023 Sand Road Grenache:

*Red Star Value. 93 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, February 2025:
Sand Road vineyard, planted in '09 to alluvial sands, silty clay and gravel. Destemmed and open fermented at coolish temperatures for two weeks; raised in older French puncheons. Old vines are the buzz with grenache, and for good reason, but lovingly farmed young vines can also have striking results. And the Leask brothers do nothing if not farm well. Savouriness and tannin may not be the first thing to expect from younger vines, but here they are. Dried cranberry, wild raspberry, Earl Grey tea, dusty earth, baking spices. It hits mid-weight, with no sweet spot – a good thing. Rather, the fruit is wrapped up in a food-apt tensioning of chewy grip and clean acidity. Distinctive. Good.

92 points, SA Wine Guide 2025, Shanteh Wale:
Matured for 14 months in old French puncheons. A bright, pure ruby hue in the glass. Aromas of rosehip, red cherry and blood plum juice. A strawberry roll-up or two. Dried thyme and sage leaf. A cascade of elevated acidity and fine but powerfully dry tannins. This will wake up your taste buds and come alive with some fatty meats or a charcuterie board. Keep an eye on this site and wine; there is plenty of promise here. Particularly for the structure those gritty tannins give to the final product. For now, this is a steal at the price. Drink now–2027.

Reviews of 2022 Sand Road Grenache:

94 points, Decanter, David Sly, January 2024:
All high-toned cranberry over sunny cherry, but then slinky tannins pull a tight line. Texture and tone become the central focus before a pillow-soft landing. Great control and poise from this admirable, high-wire balancing act.

91 points, The Real Review, January 2024:
Medium-deep red-purple colour with a lift of volatile acidity which also comes through on the palate. Taut, firm, lean and a little austere. Intense, focused palate flavour. Probably not volatile enough to worry most drinkers but it would be better with less. It's quite a muscular wine which should have a solid cellaring future. A good decanting and aeration helps.

92 points, Winepilot, August 2023: https://winepilot.com/story/hither-yon/
There’s always something special about McLaren Vale Grenache, and I enjoyed this one a lot. It’s bright and juicy (and particularly vibrant with food), showing lots of red and black fruits (wild strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, black cherry, stewed plums) and some spicy cinnamon and black pepper. Give it some time to breathe and it will express itself confidently, both on the first night and the second.

Tony Love, InDaily February 2023:
From the Leask brothers’ youngest Grenache vines at 13 years old, crafted into a youthful, fragrant, bistro style with 20% whole bunch influence in the winemaking that offers a subtle sappiness in the palate. While you are being seduced by its floral aromas and freshly squeezed plum and apple juiciness, you should pause for a mo, as it has plenty to offer in its textural game, lip-smacking and with an appealing spicy/peppery tannin profile in the palate and finish. Bistro, yes, and very food conscious as well – its own crew suggests pairing it with the vegetable and cheese pasty from the Willunga Bakery.

Reviews of 2023 Grenache Mataro:

91 points, SA Wine Guide 2025, Shanteh Wale:
Matured for 14 months in old French puncheons. 70% Grenache and 30% Mataro. A real mix of blackberries, red cherry and pomegranate. The wine has a stirring ripe herbal nuance, like creeping ivy over a wild rose bush. Acidity has kept crunchy and vibrant with understated oak rounding out the closure, Mataro giving the wine that little speed hump of flesh on the middle palate. A clever wine that would please a Pinot drinker all the way to a Shiraz drinker. Drink now–2027.

Reviews of 2021 Grenache Mataro:

92 points, James Sucking, April 2023:
Bright, youthful and crunchy with aromas of red cherries, raspberries, pink peppercorns and white pepper. Medium-bodied with vibrant acidity and fine tannins. Peppery and wild finish. 70% Grenache and 30% Mataro. Delicious now.

92 points, Angus Hughson, Vinous, February 2023:
The 2021 Grenache and Mataro blend really delivers thanks to an expressive and generously fruited style radiating with black cherry, baked earth, red currants and older oak with a classic touch of McLaren Vale old iron. The palate is beautifully pitched - mouth-filling flavors and al dente tannins are superbly balanced to deliver genuine power and length.

93 points,  Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal, December 2022:
Medium deep crimson. Strawberry, red cherry, blueberry, bubble gum hint aromas. Sweetly fruited wine wine with ample red fruits, supply velvety textures and fresh indelible acidity before finishing crunchy and long. Very good viscosity and mineral length. Drink now to 2026.

91 points, Wine Advocate 2022, Erin Larkin:
The 2021 Grenache Mataro is composed of 70% Grenache from the Hunt Road vineyard and 30% Mataro from the Sand Road vineyard. This is great! It is vibrant, nervy and fresh, with a skein of tannin that courses through the fruit. The acidity is briny and makes for juicy drinking. Well played.

Reviews of 2020 Grenache Mataro:

93 points, James Suckling 2021, Nick Stock:
Strikingly bright and fresh raspberry aromas here with wild herbs and bracken, as well as leafy tones. Lively red and blue fruit sits concentrated on the palate. A fresh blend of 70% Grenache and 30% Mataro.

90 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin:
Hand picked, with a smidgeon of whole bunches (10%) in the 70% grenache. The oak, all used barriques. Sweet floral aromas segue to Turkish delight and kirsch. White pepper, Seville orange zest and clove lace the long finish. Sappy, crunchy and yet, a bit sweet.

Reviews of 2019 Grenache Mataro:

92 points, Winefront by Mike Bennie:
From good folks comes a good wine of good grapes from two good vineyards. Tension is the first thing that came to mind. This ain’t no blousy red. No, indeed, it sits on train tracks of tannin and acidity, a good bite of amaro tang and amongst all that some jubey, blackcurrant fruitiness. Perfume is mild but floral-leaning with dashes of peppery spice. It’s a wine that has you sit up straight and pay attention. It’s a bit serious, but good in that way. Medium weight, svelte, tense. Good stuff.

Reviews of 2018 Grenache Mataro:

James Halliday, Wine Companion, January 2020, 95 points and top value wine:
Classic southern Rhône Valley style, with the wild herbs and spices of the garrigue giving pleasure in the rims of aromas and flavours alike. It will be hard to keep your hands of it, but it could be a knockout with more time in bottle. 14.5% alc.

92 Points, James Suckling:
Bright, red-fruit fragrance here with some darker berries in the mix, too. The palate is crisp, succulent and juicy, as a good young grenache should be.

Mike Bennie - WBM March/April 2020, 93 points:
There's a really lovely marriage of sweeter fruit gamey, earthy characters in this wine. I like the general sense of detail in the wine too - sheets of fruit character layered on spice, savouriness and a fresh pool of acidity. It feels quietly complex but wildly drinkable.

Reviews of 2017 Grenache Mataro:

James Halliday, Wine Companion, August 2018, 94 points and red value star:
Superb colour; at maximum turbocharged revolutions, but the power is smoothly delivered across the palate. Because the balance is very good, this richly endowed wine will repay cellaring particularly well.

Mike Bennie, WBM July 2018, 93 points:
Lovely stuff. Fragrant with musky-spice, raspberry and cranberry scents. The palate does a similar turn and sits squarely in a medium wieght wine zone. Some heft to the flavours but the finish is a bell ring of clean acidity. Appealing as. 14.5%, $27.

Decanter World Wine Awards (2018). Silver Medal. 93 points. www.decanter.com 

Reviews of 2016 Grenache Mataro:

Andrew Graham, Oz Wine Review, June 2017, www.ozwinereview.com:
The Leask Brothers are switched on growers and these wines typically show plenty of sunny generosity (if sometimes a little heat). The blend here is 60/40 Grenache Mataro; a good mix. Lots of juicy black and red berry fruit. Lovely. The tannins have a real sandy Grenachey shape to them (but with a licoricey oomph). Palate is silky smooth, slightly syrupy but really quite satisfying in its curranty flow, a big luscious wines that is very young, but exuberantly so. It could do with another year in bottle to integrate the bold flavours a little, but the flow of red fruit is undeniably attractive. Very well priced too. Best drinking: 2018-2028. 17.7/20, 92/100+. 14.5%, $25.

Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, May 2017, www.winefront.com.au:
60% Grenache, 40% Mataro. I don’t have a feel for 2016 in McLaren Vale, as yet, but so far, I like what I see. A hearty red, but one that’s not too heavy. Red fruits, some floral perfume, slight confectionary notes, but tapered in with dried herb. It’s medium bodied, juicy and savoury at once, with a rub of sandy tannin, fresh red fruits, and a gently bitter amaro herb and earthy aftertaste. This goes all right. Good drinking here. 91 points.

Huon Hooke, April 2017, www.huonhooke.com
Deep red/purple colour, the bouquet black cherry, spices, firm tannins and good body weight. A nicely judged kiss of oak. Balanced and complete. 90 points.

Stuart Robinson, May 2017, www.thevinsomniac.com:
Nigh on pitch-perfect 60/40 blend of two listed players. There's just something so wickedly, consistently, deliciously moreish about H&Y reds. This no exception, it extracts a juicy, jubey aromatic without straying too far towards confection. Call it an allure, call it what you will, inviting is what it is. Slipping around the palate with ease in its easy going, red fruited nature. There's more juicy red fruit, a slip of tannin providing an edge, a framework to carry. Mataro brings up the rear, it's bassy foundations adding length, substance, spice. 91 points.

Reviews of 2015 Grenache Mataro: 

August 2016. 90 Points. Huon Hooke. www.huonhooke.com
Spicy, sweet cherry, confectionery aromas. The palate is tight and lean with firm, fine tannins and a pleasant after-grip. A good, clean, bright wine of some depth. Very smart wine.

August 2016. James Halliday, Wine Companion. 92 Points:
Aromas and flavours are both savoury and sweet-fruited with raspberry, chocolate, and mulchy notes in the mix. Well integrated tannin and acid keeps things fresh and in order.

May 2016. Max Allen, Australian Gourmet Traveller:
Top Drops of the Month, No 1. "heaps of juicy red berry-fruit flavours, but there is also a delicious gutsy earthiness-like sweet black composting leaf litter-that sets it apart.

March 2016. Stuart Robinson, www.the vinsomniac.com.au, 91 points:
A 60/40 blend of Grenache and Mataro respectively, and 100% McLaren Vale. Raspberry, red fruit, some wild herb/garrigue thing with a choc-raspberry-fudge milkshake. Trust me, it works. Juicy, a little dark fruit, chocolate, fine tannin; palate enlivening acidity that brings back the wine full circle. There's fruit in abundance, a little savoury tickle, good length. Another stellar wine.

February 2016. Winsor Dobbin. www.winsorschoice.blogspot.com.au:
This is a fabulously accessible blend of 60% grenache and 40% mataro – the ripe, sweet grenache fruit melding with the earthy funkiness of the mataro to produce a beautifully balanced red that is designed for immediate enjoyment. No need to cellar this one; just put some gourmet sausages on the barbeque and you have a wine/food match made in heaven.

February 2016. 90 points. Gary Walsh. www.winefront.com.au:
Good stuff. It’s crisp and perky, almost Italianate. Raspberry rope, strawberry, dried herb perfume. Medium bodied, crunchy and fresh, red fruits, light sandy tannin, more red fruits on the finish. Almost a ‘volcanic rock’ kind of thing going on. Nice to see a McLaren Vale wine that so bright and ‘food friendly’.

Reviews of the 2021 Grenache Touriga:

16.5/20, Jancis Robinson, September 2023: https://www.jancisrobinson.com/tastings/268754

"Beautifully fragrant, the natural spicy, floral qualities of both varieties complementing and enhancing each other; crunchy red berries on the tongue, more spice, vibrant and savoury, with a touch of sour dark-cherry pip on the finish." (MA)

92 points, Wine Advocate 2022, Erin Larkin:
"The Touriga imbues this 2021 Grenache Touriga blend with a backbone, a deep well of concentrated fruit and layers of firm tannins. The Grenache swims through all of it, leaving a trail of raspberries and peppercorns in its wake. Lovely wine. Great stuff here.Vibrant."

90 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin MW:

"The touch here, more refined with this vintage. Nice drinking. Grenache's pinosité playing rhythm to T aromatic and peppery vibrato. The wine just needs a juicier chord across the mid-palate. Rose petal, lilac, smattered Mediterranean herb and cherry soda. Energetic and effusive of flavour. A prosaic, eminently drinkable wine destined for the fridge."

92 points, James Suckling 2022; Nick Stock:
"This blend sees the sheen of touriga elevate grenache and also twist it a shade darker. More blue and purple fruit than red seen here, and there's a very handy sense of concentration and purity. Gentle layer of liquorice to close. Drink now. Screw cap."

Reviews of the 2020 Grenache Touriga:

92 points, Halliday Companion 2022; Ned Goodwin MW:
"A vibrant, floral and full-weighted red with a skein of peppery freshness and frisky tannins that belie the weight; more savoury and mid weighted as a result. Black cherry, cinnamon, violet, purple gummy bears and sassafras. There's a smoky riff across the back end, but it fails to detract from the freshness, drinkability and imminent appeal."

91 points, James Suckling 2020, Nick Stock:
"A complex and youthful blend, this shows aromas of blue fruit and flowers with red berries and cassis, too. Seamless. The palate is bright and dynamic, with a smooth build. Layered, with supportive, crunchy acidity."

91 points, The Real Review, Huon Hooke:
"Medium-depth of purple/red colour, fresh and bright. The aromas are fresh and fruit driven: red cherry and raspberry, while the palate is medium-bodied at most and pleasantly intense with good drying tannins balancing the fruit. A delicious juicy-fruit style, made to enjoy young, but I’m sure it will also age well."

Reviews of the 2019 Grenache Touriga:

95 points, Jane Faulkner, 2021 James Halliday Wine Companion:
"What appeals is how the fruit does the talking. Winemaking merely the guide. Made in a fresh, drink now style yet with some depth and shape thanks to its grainy tannins and savoury overlay. Delicious."

90 points, James Suckling:
"Attractive raspberry and papaya aromas here with red plums and blackcurrants. The palate has crisp, chalky texture and fresh red-berry and red-papaya flavors. Juicy-fruit finish."

90 points, Mike Bennie, The Wine Front:
"Bright and vivacious style, feels fresh, berry fruited, pretty and decidedly sweet. Sweetness sticks in the craw a bit but you get the feeling this bottle won’t last long around the right crowd. A neat chomp of gummy tannin does good for some balance, too. Fun!" 

Reviews of the 2018 Grenache Touriga:

93 points, James Halliday 2020 Wine Companion:
"The fancy of freshness. Raspberry, spice, strawberry pie and anise notes fly attractively through the palate, charming as they go. It's a 55/45% blend; it saw no new oak (40% was kept in stainless); the flavours and scents burst merrily from the glass. It's a lovely wine. Serious quality, fun style."

2019 Drink Easy Competition:
"Ripe, plush plums, cherries - fat juicy summer red fruits. The acidity is here and strong but flexible tannins keep it fresh as. Delicious drinking."

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.