O’Leary Walker Wines Seasonal Release Grenache 2020

At first glance you might think that owners and veteran winemakers David O’Leary and Nick Walker have decided for a life of pipe, slippers and port. You see this seasonal series range is made by the younger team of Jack Walker and Luke Broadbent, who are given a mandate to have a go and try things a bit different. But I suspect that the older guys are looking over their shoulders, albeit from a respectable Covid distance. This wine is a part of a regular seasonal release from this super Clare Valley maker. And the young team always seem to deliver something that is different and interesting. This is a cracker sourced from 100-plus year-old vines. It’s soft and supple, a result of basket pressing among other gentle winery techniques. It’s also had 10 per cent whole berries so there is structure to the soft, malleable fruit. The texture is seductive and engaging while the palate length is impressive with a spicy lift on the finish a striking feature.

Ray Jordan

Wine critic, author and journalist at Winepilot

Ray Jordan has been writing about wine for more than 40 years. His first articles were published in the early issues of national wine magazine Winestate in the late 1970s when he worked in Sydney as a newspaper correspondent. From 1989 Ray wrote more than 3000 columns as a regular newspaper wine columnist. He currently writes a regular column for the special business publication Business News and is one of the main contributors to national wine platform Wine Pilot. In 2017 Ray co-authored The Way it Was – A History of The Early Days of the Margaret River Wine Industry and previously wrote Wine in the Blood: Australia’s Family Wine Estates, published in Mandarin and English. In 2011 Ray was awarded WA Wine Press Club Jack Mann Memorial Medal for his contribution to the WA wine industry. His love of wine is as strong as his love of the blues and tasting the thousands of wines that cross his bench each year allows him to indulge in both.

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