2022 MMAD Grenache
The vintage was cool and late, with low yields, and the perfect finish to the season as temperatures warmed up toward harvest. This wine has rich red cherry and raspberry fruit, with some opulence on the front palate. Then the grainy, firm tannins come to the fore and form the backbone of the astonishingly long palate. There’s an energy and density that showcases what Grenache from old vines can do in Blewitt Springs. About 15% whole bunches, and fermented in wood and stainless steel before malolactic fermentation and maturation in concrete and large old French oak barrels.
"This is ballistically good. I doubt that I’ll taste anything much better from these shores over the next 12 months. The first thing you notice is the plushness, which is always welcome, but it’s the the finish that takes things to eleven. Wow, really, this wine has a show-stopping finish on it. It’s blessed with red and blue berry flavours, cedarwood, roasted spice and earth, but itemising the flavours of this wine kind of misses the point. It’s like focussing on the colour of a tidal wave. The complete and utter command of the final flourish of flavour and tannin here feels, as you swallow, like a high water mark. I’m sold, totally sold, on this wine."
97 POINTS
Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
"The second release of the MMAD Vineyard label, and off its 1939-planted Blewitt Springs vineyard. About 15% whole bunches, fermented in wood and steel, maturation in concrete and large old French oak. Unlike the 2022 shiraz, this takes time to emerge from the glass. It’s all there, though. There’s a brooding quality at present, with nori, iodine and ferrous notes filtering up through dark red cherry, plum, raspberry and sultry florals. Some spicy, musky characters emerge with air. Tannin is a meaningful factor, a pleasingly natural grape-derived affair, rugged but never rustic. A seriously compelling wine, and further proof of how thrilling McLaren Vale grenache is right now, for both its quality and the unparalleled diversity in top-flight expressions."
97 POINTS
Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
"A sumptuously perfumed grenache with no shortage of structural exactitude and the tension that comes with it. Lilacs, tapenade, raspberry coulis, freshly picked strawberries and anise. Dried lavender and rosemary are bound to the tannic latticework. Salty and nourishing, with the warmth of umami across the long finish."
96 POINTS
Ned Goodwin MW, jamessuckling.com
Also available in Magnum format (1500ml) in the following vintages: