Hewitson Ungrafted Grenache 2022

Grenache is in the ascendancy and the Barossa wine region is well-placed to help lead the way. The choice of name, Ungrafted Grenache – maybe not the most romantic of wine names – underplays both the seriousness of the grapes employed – sourced off 100+ year old, dry grown vines – but also the wine itself. It’s a real beauty and quite fascinating in its complexity which changes each time you return to the glass. Delicate, exotic in scent – juniper, black tea, maraschino cherry, black pepper, rosemary, hibiscus. You have to admire the deceptive pleasure that old vines can bring to a grape like Grenache. On first look, it’s all red fruits and lively spice and herbs. On the second and third look, the fruit expands, the spice and herbs run longer and deeper, and there’s also the introduction of a touch – just – of smoked meat savouriness. It seems effortless. I’m sure the viticulturist and winemaker worked hard to make it all seem so easy, so pure.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.

Wine writer and critic