Yelland & Papps Limited Cuvée Grenache 2024

The fruit for this wine came from a neglected block of low-yielding dry-grown bush vines in Marananga that were planted into deep red soils in 1956. In 2024, Susan and Michael were given enough to fill a single French oak barrel. It was wild-fermented with minimal intervention in new oak. Cedar and clove oak notes sit forward to start before an unfurling of graphite and iodine-laced minerality, along with blackberry, plum, black-cherry conserve and star anise. There’s some emergent warm-sand earthiness with air, and some mountain herbs adding an attractive bitter tone. It’s the minerality that keeps this all in check, shooting through the wine’s core and acting as a buoy. The palate is intense and very mineral, with iodine, raspberry coulis, warm sand, black cherry, blackberry pie, bitter herbs and graphite gliding high through the mouth, putting on a masterclass in power without weight. Powdery tannins are fine but firm, with lovely juicy acidity distracting from the verticality through a very long finish. Impressive. This is built for the long haul, and the oak does play a material role at this early stage of its life, so this is one to lay down for five to ten years in order to see its true worth.