Grenache 2023

Grant Nash is a celebration of Grenache and this is our first bottling of a straight Grenache or Vitamin G, as we call it, because it's essential for a happy life!

Dark, broody and evocative; Vitamin G is an exploration into Grenache’s darker side and it takes a few moments to unfurl it’s full potential in the glass.

The nose is complex and constantly evolving to show dark cherries, plums, white pepper, cardamom and a sprinkle of cocoa powder and baking spices. Hints of orange peel and amaro add to the intrigue. The palate is a seamless mix of plush, dark fruits woven with supple, polished tannins.

The Grenache is hand harvested from gnarly old McLaren Flat bush vines planted in 1941 and the smaller, more concentrated bunches were selected for Vitamin G. A little dollop of Mourvèdre was added to accentuate the darker, spicier notes.

Open fermentation, hand plunged, matured in French oak puncheons, no fining or filtration.

Marcus Ellis - Halliday Wine Companion - 93 points

While Blewitt Springs and Clarendon are justifiably celebrated for being the locus of the grenache revival, it is exciting to see modern expressions celebrating other parts of the Vale. This comes off 1941 vines in McLaren Flat. Initially moody and brooding, but gifted with the grace of the year, this is all cherries and sour plums, redcurrant relish, dusty earth, white pepper, sarsaparilla and Middle Eastern spicing. Ample air liberates and refines considerably. Fine but appealingly grainy tannins give this savoury gastronomic direction, the fruit picked for both flavour depth and lively freshness.

Mike Bennie - WBM - 92 points

I tasted this wine and thought ‘party Grenache!’, a kind of easy drinking style, rich enough, plush enough, juicy, fresh, could be chilled, does all the red berry fruitiness, a touch of drying rose hip tea character and a twist of amaro-like bitterness as a pleasing finish. It’s not complicated, but it isn’t elementary, a nice middle ground for pleasure zone stuff like this

Tim White - https://timwhite.com.au/ - 93 points

This smells like a bit of fun. Has plum skin and then rosehip pomegranate, gentle old white pepper. Autumn gold plum. A transitory sniff of galangal. Gentle in the mouth and with more of the rosehippy thing going, plus dried peel, a succulent plum skin and pomegranate core, and fine sandy Grenache tannins. Delightful dustiness and some alcohol warmth which sits perfectly with the weight of the fruit. Mouth-sucking and flinty, evolving wetter, carbon paper tannins with air. Valedictory mouth-aroma wafts of jerky too—of the beef kind. This is a most tasty medium to full-bodied grenache, with just the right mix of seriousness and ebullience.