Thistledown, The Vagabond Old Vine Grenache, Blewitt Springs, McLaren Vale, South Australia, Australia, 2023

Producer Profile

Masters of Wine, Giles Cooke & Fergal Tynan, founded Thistledown Wines in 2010 after discovering iconic vineyard sites in the McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley and Adelaide Hills.

They make hand-made, small batch wines that perfectly illustrate the benefits of great sites and intelligent, minimalist winemaking.

Viticulture

Convinced that, of all of the regions of Australia, the greatest potential for greatness is in the McLaren Vale, Thistledown therefore set about finding unique plots throughout the region, looking for specific soil formations that would imbue the Vagabond with finesse, varietal purity and texture and sourced the fruit from 4 separate, old, dry grown, bush trained vineyards in Blewitt Spring, planted in deep sands with some ironstone.

Winemaking

All the fruit was hand picked with each vineyard vinified separately. One vineyard was wild fermented in a concrete pyramid which had layers of whole bunch and crushed fruit. This ferment had no mechanical extraction. The balance was wild fermented in an open fermenter with 35% whole bunches, hand plunged twice daily. This portion was aged in puncheons while the pyramid fermented was pressed back to a concrete egg and oak puncheons for maturation.

Tasting Note

This wine possesses a beautifully complex, aromatic nose of violets, wild cherry, rosemary and warming spice. The palate is energetic yet polished and smooth with vibrant cherry, spice, wild strawberry and liquorice on the palate. Medium bodied but multi-layered and textural with a very long, aromatic finish.

Food Matching

North African influenced foods, jamon and game.

Awards

The Wine Front 95 Points
From four old vine, bush vine vineyards in Blewitt Springs. I’m all for single vineyard wines, though sometimes the sum of the parts makes for a more complete wine. Raspberry, red cherry, violet perfume, some dried herb and spice. It’s medium-bodied, crisp and quite frisky, all red fruits with with some blood orange and pomegranate, almonds too, tannin is all sort of crushed sandstone (or something like that), and the finish is aromatic, long and really quite pretty. Such energy. Lovely. 95 Points, GW, 2024.
Robert Parker Wine Advocate 94 Points
The 2023 The Vagabond Old Vine Grenache is succulent and silky and leads with a bouquet as polished and supple as the palate—raspberry pip, cranberry, red cherry, licorice, star anise and layers of Earl Grey tea and violets. It has beautiful clarity and poise, but this is what we have come to expect from this producer. Classy wine. 94 Points, EL, 2024.
James Suckling 93 Points
Beautifully fragrant, mid-weighted grenache. Red-fruit allusions, pomegranate, menthol, dried rose petal and orange zest. 2023 was another cooler attenuated vintage, the last and perhaps the most challenging of a La Nina troika. Elegance writ large here, somehow synergistic with a Mediterranean-accented cru Beaujolais, such is the imminence, freshness, gritty tannin and shimmering transparency. 93 Points, NG(MW), 2024.
The Real Review 94 points
Deep ruby and purple colours in the glass. Mulberry, wood oil and cardamom aromatics. Dark berry fruits fill the core of the palate. It's medium to full in weight yet with a lift of acid ensuring it never sits heavy. Savoury spices and dark slate minerality all add to the complexity and character here with firm grained tannins ensuring length and precision to its flow, with the finish lingering very long. 94 Points, SK, 2024.
Halliday Wine Companion 2025 Special Value 95 Points
'From four old vine, bush vine vineyards in Blewitt Springs. I’m all for single vineyard wines, though sometimes the sum of the parts makes for a more complete wine. Raspberry, red cherry, violet perfume, some dried herb and spice. It’s medium-bodied, crisp and quite frisky, all red fruits with with some blood orange and pomegranate, almonds too, tannin is all sort of crushed sandstone (or something like that), and the finish is aromatic, long and really quite pretty. Such energy. Lovely. 95 Points, ME, August 2024.