Grenache - Australia

96 Points, Star for Special Value - James Halliday

You see the attention to detail with this wine: 94% on skins for 6 days, 6% for 52 days, all picking batches kept separate, matured in used oak for 7 months. This is space age Barossa Valley grenache, showing it is possible to make great wine at 13.5% alcohol without any confection/Turkish delight characters, just a delicious flower vase collection of red fruits. Big time bargain.

94 Points - Jay Miller (erobertparker.com)

The 2005 John Speke GSM is composed of 50% Grenache, 30% Shiraz, and 20% Mourvedre. Grapes were sourced from vines ranging in age from 60 to 100 years located near Nuriootpa. The nose features notes of spice box, damp earth, truffle, kirsch, black raspberry, and blueberry muffin. Velvety-textured and elegant on the palate, the wine offers serious depth and concentration, gobs of red and black fruits, and a long, pure finish. Drink this hedonistic effort over the next 12-15 years.

95 Points - Robert Parker

The exotic, full-throttle, high velocity, mouth-staining, unctuously textured, dense ruby/purple-hued 2003 Grenache Old Vines Blewitt Springs is classic southern Australian Grenache. Pushed to the limit, but not over the top, it is a spectacular wine.

93 Points - Robert Parker

As usual for this cuvee, the 2004 Grenache Blewitt Springs possesses an extraordinary, exotic, flamboyant personality that causes Roman Bratasiuk to say it’s his “Dolly Parton-styled wine.” Terrific notes of blackberries, raspberries, and rich kirsch liqueur are accompanied by an opulent, flamboyant wine with tremendous viscosity and richness as well as a lusty, heady finish.

93 Points - Josh Raynolds

Deep ruby. Explosive raspberry, blackberry and blueberry scents, along with suave Asian spices and fresh rose. Mouth-filling red berry flavors offer impressive clarity and silky texture for such volume. Velvety tannins add shape to this dense, strikingly sweet fruit bomb. I'd be tempted to drink it now, just to wallow in the seductive fruit.

93 Points - Josh Raynolds

Deep ruby. Explosive raspberry, blackberry and blueberry scents, along with suave Asian spices and fresh rose. Mouth-filling red berry flavors offer impressive clarity and silky texture for such volume. Velvety tannins add shape to this dense, strikingly sweet fruit bomb. I'd be tempted to drink it now, just to wallow in the seductive fruit.

94 Points - Jeremy Oliver

A wild, heady and briary perfume of raspberries, red cherries, redcurrants and dark plums overlies a meaty, musky background of baked earth, spice and blueberries. It’s rich and voluptuous, robust and powerfully flavoured, with deep Black Forest Cake-like layers of intense, brambly berry influences supported by fine, drying undercarriage and finishing with lingering suggestions of black jelly beans. Likely to thicken out further.

95 Points -Jeremy Oliver

An exceptionally deep, powerful grenache with drive, concentration and remarkable fruit purity. Its pristine, heady bouquet of high-toned floral notes and alluringly, deep-scented cherries, plums, spice and dark chocolate are backed by suggestions of cola and briar. Long and vibrant, with deliciously intense dark cherry/plum/blackberry fruit tightly knit with fine, grainy tannins, it finishes long and dry, brightly flavoured, fresh and savoury.

95 Points - Jeremy Oliver

An exceptionally deep, powerful grenache with drive, concentration and remarkable fruit purity. Its pristine, heady bouquet of high-toned floral notes and alluringly, deep-scented cherries, plums, spice and dark chocolate are backed by suggestions of cola and briar. Long and vibrant, with deliciously intense dark cherry/plum/blackberry fruit tightly knit with fine, grainy tannins, it finishes long and dry, brightly flavoured, fresh and savoury.