Thistledown, This Charming Man Single Vineyard Old Vine Grenache, Clarendon, Mclaren Vale, South Australia, 2024

Producer Profile

Thistledown was founded by Master of Wine, Giles Cooke who had a vision for a more elegant, textural interpretation of Australian wine.

Initial explorations resulted in access to many of the best vineyards, many of which were the previously unloved Old Vine Grenache. Incredible, historic fruit sources coupled with Giles’ increasingly adept efforts has quickly resulted in a reputation for being amongst the best in the country. Narrating the stories of these wines to an increasingly attentive global audience is Giles’ heartfelt commitment and mission.

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

Tasting Note

On a beautiful hillside in the Clarendon sub-region of McLaren Vale, three generations of the Smart family have devoted their lives to Grenache. Decades have passed where precious few valued their crop and yet they endured. That this remarkable vineyard has sustained is down to one man, Bernard Smart and this wine pays homage to this charming man. 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

Robert Parkers Wine Advocate 97 Points
'The 2024 The Charming Man Single Vineyard Grenache hails from Clarendon, on Brooks Road. The "Charming Man" is, of course, Bernard Smart, who sadly passed away in October 2023; his son, Wayne, continues the legacy there. The wine opens with blood orange, fresh lavender, crushed rose petals and frisky acidity. This is ferrous and bloody, layered with dried citrus and north African spices, which are no doubt driven from the iron-rich clays with siltstone and quartz of Clarendon. It is penetrating and intense, spicy and quite firm in its tannin profile, yet it is pliable, agile and exciting. Despite the fine acid, there is no acid adjustment here. The oldest part of the vineyard is 102 years old, while the youngest part is 53 years old. The "young" vines have a higher fruiting zone, approximately six inches higher up than the oldest parts of the vineyard, meaning that it can be picked up to 10 days earlier. This "young" pocket has lower pH and higher total acidity, earlier flavor development and, hence, no added acidity. It's a superb wine, one that will evolve in the glass over the evening. Here's hoping it lasts that long. 97 Points, April 2025.
Halliday Wine Companion 99 Points and Wine of the Year 2026
Over 7000 wines were tasted for this year’s Wine Companion. We painstakingly whittled this down to a shortlist of 160 wines to be tasted at our annual awards judging in March. 17 brackets were set across the tables of 8 of the very best wine critics in Australia. They tasted blind, each wine masked to conceal its maker. The best of the best of these brackets were repoured to determine Red Wine of the Year, White Wine of the Year, Sparkling of the Year and this prestigious award, Wine of the Year. You can’t ask for a better endorsement of why this wine is worthy of its 99 points. It’s a wine that’s been described by McLaren Vale taster Marcus Ellis as having “such engaging transparency, such serene refinement, such poise”. This was our first year of looking at varietal grenache as a class, without blends, and nothing to muddy the waters, so to speak. No room for flaws, just purity under a microscope. And this wine wowed. The room was left with no uncertainty, nor reason for second guessing; this wine was simply the finest example of varietal grenache on the bench and further, the finest wine full stop. The voting results didn’t allow room for quibble. The tally was clear. This is a wine of provenance, quality and sheer depth of flavour. A wine that drinks well now and has the foundations to go the distance in the cellar. Our Wine of the Year is Thistledown Wines This Charming Man Single Vineyard Clarendon Grenache 2024 McLaren Vale.. 99 Points, Wine of the Year, KB, March 2025.