2005 Schwarz Thiele Road Vineyard Grenache (Australia)

I see it's been a month since my last entry. That isn't because I haven't been enjoying wine; au contraire, Francie and I had a great tour of Santa Barbara and Paso Robles (CA) wine country and tasted, then ordered, a whole lot of grenache, syrah, and various blends. I will need to collate my notes and put them on the blog.

Meanwhile, here's an Australian grenache, opened 24 hours ago as I write on 3/27. The unmistakable sweet flowery huckleberry on an ethereal nose, a bit of forest floor and violet, and a touch of maybe leather/cigar box/St. Julien. Some candy cherry. Very silky on the palate, with more strawberry on the taste than nose. Against my standard of the 2004 De Lisio Grenache, my all time favorite Aussie (or any) 100% grenache wine, this one is a bit lighter in body, nose, color and shorter in finish. If De Lisio was 95 points, this one is appropriately 92-93. And I'm impressed at how it's drinking better today than 24 hrs ago. Some stuff from the winery website

Thiele Road Grenache 2007

Bright ruby red coloured wine with vibrant aromas of red cherry and plummy fruits. It's a spicy little beast with red licorice, heady five spice, grilled meats and kirsch with some lifted raspberry and violet top-notes. There is just a hint of gingerbread in there too.

The palate is awash with liquored red cherry and red plum fruit, enveloped in warm spice flavours - five spice, cardamon and ginger - it's earthy and finishes brightly with a ripe tannin structure and good balance and drive.

"Typically light hue, and typically light-bodied, but has more definition to the spicy red fruits, and less outright confection flavour......better than many barossa counterparts. Rating 91, drink 2013."
... James Halliday, (Australian Wine Companion, 2010)

"....Lovely, lovely wine. Just a great wine to quaff. Earthen and raspberried, jammy and spicy. Silken texture. Fresh acid through the finish. Massaged tannin. A warm-hearted 'earth wine' that's crying out for the dinner table. Rating 92, drink 2009 - 2013."
... Campbell Mattinson, November 2009 (www.winefront.com.au)

Winemaker Notes

I used to catch the school bus from the end of Thiele Road. Our family Grenache block is planted along this dusty old track and has been there since my father’s uncle dropped in the cuttings in 1946.

These gnarly old vines now hold up the traditional red gum trellis and the trunks are home to nests of white ants.

The vineyard is spur pruned to reduce vigour and bunch density. Typically small berries and open bunches are this vineyards characters.

Fruit is hand picked and 50% destemmed, 50% crushed to give some carbonic maceration characters.

Soaked for 3 days, yeast is then added and the ferment is allowed to reach 30-32 degrees to increase colour and tannin before reducing the temperature to 18-23 to maintain varietal characters.

Ferment is pumped over gently twice a day and hand plunged so that skins do not desecrate. We undertake and extended maceration on skins for 8- 12 days.

Malo lactic fermentation is then undertaken in old French oak barrels and the wine is purposely unfiltered and racked twice before bottling 20 months later.

Tasting Notes

Bright ruby red.

Vibrant aromas of red cherry and plummy fruits. It’s a spicy little beast with red licorice, heady five spice, grilled meats and kirsch with some lifted raspberry and violet top-notes. There is just a hint of gingerbread in there too.

The palate is awash with liquored red cherry and red plum fruit enveloped in warm spice flavours – five spice, cardamom and ginger – it’s earthy and finishes brightly with a ripe tannin structure and good balance and drive.