Pimpernel Vineyards Grenache Shiraz Mourvèdre 2017

A blend of Grenache (48%), Shiraz (29%) and Mourvèdre (22%) co-fermented with Muscat of Alexandria (1%).  The winemaker clearly believes in those little one per-centers. The 2017 vintage in the Yarra Valley was certainly an outstanding year and the GSM is holding well with seven years in bottle, retaining good freshness and verve. The scent is lifted (is that, in part, the doing of the Muscat?) with an attractive floral charm alongside black pepper, juniper, liquorice, black cherry and plum. A solid wine full of flavour and well defined by ripe tannins, with oak well placed. That peppery lift on the palate is invigorating. A GSM with ambitions beyond the simple and tasty. Drinking super well now, and still capable of further time in bottle.

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