Woodvale MCD Grenache 2021

‘MCD’ does not stand for some curious new experimental blend but rather, Kevin’s maternal grandfather, Maurice Charlie Duke. Grenache was his favourite variety and he was certainly not alone with that. The team acknowledge how the tragedy of the 1980s vine pull scheme robbed the Clare Valley (and elsewhere) of much of those wonderful old vine Grenache vineyards, but, for this wine, they have sourced fruit from two of those remaining. The fruit was handpicked, sorted and crushed into small open-topped fermenters with gentle pumpovers and then a few days, post ferment, on skins. Basket pressing followed, to a mix of older (six to ten years) French oak hogsheads. This is bright crimson in colour. A ripe and yet refreshing style, red fruits everywhere with a pleasing exuberance to the wine with raspberries, woodsmoke and mulberries in spades. Seamless in structure, there is excellent length here and very fine tannins, a mix of the silky and sandy. Delicious now and should remain so over the next five to eight years. A precise, finely crafted and good value example of Clare Grenache.