Thistledown, This Charming Man Single Vineyard Old Vine Grenache, Clarendon, Mclaren Vale, South Australia, 2021

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

A remarkable site that has vines of 100 years old. The entire site, planted high in the picturesque Clarendon sub-region, is dry grown bush vines and has been farmed by the same family for 3 generations. This wine is sourced from one particular block where the canopy is raised slightly higher above the ground, allowing for better air circulation and increased radiated sunlight.

Winemaking

Hand picked fruit was transported to the winery where 20% was retained as whole bunches to be placed on the base of a 2 ton open fermenter. Wild fermented and gently hand plunged twice a day during active fermentation. Pressed off to 300 litre hogsheads, of which 25% were new.

Oak Ageing

Time: 12 months
Type: French 300 Litre Hogshead
% wine oaked: 66
% new oak: 25

Tasting Note

Rare is the vintage that combines good yields and high quality but 2021 was just that. A remarkable vintage in that it was once again pandemic affected but that it was measured and mild with none of the heat spikes or drought conditions of recent years. This wine displays muscular yet elegant silky black fruits couple with deep, rich, warming spices, hints of violet, mineral and black cherry.

Food Matching

Beef casserole, coq au vin.

Awards

James Halliday Wine Companion 95 Points
This is stellar. It grows in stature as it unravels and beams clove, white pepper and violet across a brilliant finish of real pizazz. 95 Points, JH, March 2021.
Robert Parkers The Wine Advocate 96+ Points
This wine is named after Bernard Smart, who owns the Smart vineyard in Clarendon. This 2021 The Charming Man Single Vineyard Grenache is more savory and fine-boned than the Sands of Time; there’s rose petal fruit and raspberry pip and iodine, kelp and graphite. There’s a bloody character here. I love it. It's savory, supple, whippy, pliable, mouth perfume. 96+ Points, EL, July 2022.