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Back in the late 1990s Grenache was hardly known in Western Australia, let alone in the Great Southern. But with a love of top southern Rhône and Priorat wines, Matt Swinney had a hunch and planted the region’s first bush-vine Grenache vineyard. He did so with mass-selection cuttings from David Hohnen and gave his new vines pride of place on the Swinney site’s ironstone hilltops.
Fruit for the 2022 Swinney Grenache was handpicked from the well-established, dry-grown bush vines on the Wilsons Pool vineyard’s rich gravel/loam soils. In the vineyard, each vine was passed over multiple times, ensuring only perfect fruit was harvested. In the cellar, the fruit was destemmed and sorted berry by berry. Fermentation occurred with 15% whole bunches in a combination of small wooden fermenters and stainless-steel tanks. The wine spent two weeks on skins before being pressed to a 3600-litre seasoned French vat for 11 months’ maturation.
Having spent many years working towards it, Mann was delighted to finally have a large enough crop to conduct what he terms “a proper large-oak fermentation”. Combined with the dense core of flavour from the dry-grown bush vines, this practice highlights the lucidity and freshness that you find in Swinney’s Grenache fruit. Dark-fruited and spicy, with signature sinewy structure, Swinney is setting a new standard for Australian Grenache.