Cirillo Estate

This stunning young 2019 Grenache Ancestor vine, from the country’s oldest vines for this variety delivers an almost perfect mix of pristine primary dark cherry and red licorice aromas lifted by layers of mountain herbs, red earth and meat spices with genuine concentration and focus. Young, compact and still a little shy, it has all the pieces in place with energetic flavours, beautiful composure and refinement yet with a firm base of gravelly tannins before gliding to a pristine finish of astounding length. With the perfume of the 2017 vintage combined with the density of tannins from a year marked by long periods of dry, warm to hot conditions, this is as good as Barossa Grenache gets and may achieve perfection in time.

A cooler year that Cirillo enthuses makes for a bit of gristle, this is exceptional. Six-years in tank before release, this full-weighted wine riffs on redder fruits, rather than dark. Raspberry bon-bon, red pastille, rose petal, bergamot and a slake of tannins clad in licorice root and tea tree. Yet there is nothing drying about it as it revels with air, growing more pixelated of tannins, fresher and even more aromatic. Wonderful length. Compelling freshness. This will make fine old bones. Drink or hold.