Oliver’s Taranga Grenache 2020

Grenache is the flavour of the month at the moment – check out the prices paid for a tonne of good McLaren Vale Grenache compared with what the usual suspects such as Shiraz are attracting and you’ll be stunned. Nowhere in this wide, brown land does Grenache quite as well as McLaren Vale (in fairness, there are plenty of stunning examples from the Barossa, and other regions, but leave that debate for another day). Their story? ‘The year we installed solar panels and Don got addicted to the phone ap!”. Life is just one long walk on the wild side for these guys.

The wine spent a year on lees, half in old French oak hogsheads and the other half in stainless steel, in the quest for freshness. And fresh it is. The colour is a lovely pale crimson. The aromas weave and entwine around a core of beautiful red fruit notes, strawberries and red cherries especially. Leather, spices, warm earth and more fill out the flavour range. After the lifted aromatics, there is a seamless and supple palate, good acidity and a very long finish. It does have the slightly grainy tannins so often so typical of this variety. A superb Grenache which can be enjoyed now but will age for many years. The team at Oliver’s Taranga Vineyards suggest a good pizza to accompany the wine, which is fine, but I think it deserves something better. Game, perhaps?