John Duval Wines Annexus Grenache 2019

This is a little bit of an outlier for Australian Grenache, with 80% Eden Valley fruit rather than the more traditional valley floor sourcing. The Eden Valley vines are also over 150 years old so we are talking super-premium fruit. It has created quite a deeply coloured grenache that is, at first glance, ripe and full flavoured with dark, dense fruits with great purity and focus supported by high quality oak. Mulberry and black cherry with new leather adding savoury complexity. The palate is then compact and muscular – beautifully complex spicy, stalky notes over a core of ripe but understated dark fruits. It’s a powerhouse that is still bound up tight. Balance is impressive as is the base of ripe tannins which support a long, savoury finish. It’s a wine built for the cellar which will help to bring out so much more over the next ten to fifteen years.