2025 Thistledown This Charming Man Grenache

Simply wonderful medium-bodied red out of McLaren Vale, so pure and precise, with great line, length and acidity.

It's 100% dry grown, bush vine Grenache from a 100+ year-old vineyard in Clarendon that has been maintained for generations by the Smart family - the charming man is one Bernard Smart...

Lightly tannic and lively-flavoured, it bursts with cherry and raspberry aromatics that make you return for sniff after sniff. Sweet red fruits and some spicy, graphitey notes flow on to a palate that is sandy, fine and, in a word... uplifting.

A few years would do it no harm but it wouldn't last that long in our cellar. A must-buy.

97+ points
"It’s such a resonant wine of place, and its bright energy mirrors the humble, guileless charm and persistence of the Smart family."
- Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)