Savitas Álainn Fion PJ Grenache 2017

The Álainn Fion brand is obviously one close to the winemaker’s heart. Álainn Fion is Gaelic for “beautiful wine” and is a reference to his father’s Irish ancestry, while the initials on this grenache belong to Matt O’Leary’s mother, Pamela Juanita O’Leary. PJ is a tale of two halves with a solid core of ripe red fruits – raspberries, cherries, red currants – which closely follow the grenache varietal path with the odd light sidestep into spice and a touch of confection. Then the path takes a narrow turn, tannins firm, acidity sharpens. Your mouth puckers. The two paths remain distinct and quite separate. Fruit is sourced from Tanunda in the Barossa Valley and while it may not fall into the general expectations we might have of Barossan grenache, it remains good drinking.

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