High Sands Grenache is the pinnacle of our estate. Reaching deep within the sandy soil, our prized 1946 old vines produce wines that balance intense power and complexity with fragrance and beauty.

2021 VINTAGE SUMMARY

A favourable growing season, with good winter rains, a mild flowering and fruit set period and continued spring rainfall. Vines showed good balance of shoot vigour and moderate berry size. The ripening period that began late January was very cool, with some welcome rainfall in mid-February. The cold nights and mild sunny days in March slowed sugar accumulation, resulting in excellent fruit ripeness and intensity.

WINEMAKING

Sourced exclusively from our special Block 31 (1.7 Ha). At 210m elevation, this is the highest section of the 1946 planted bush vine Grenache, which also has the deepest sandy soil. Hand-picked 24th March, selectively sorted in the winery. Destemmed and 50% whole berries retained. Wild yeast. Open fermenters with a long gentle maceration for a minimum of 21 days with a portion of extended maceration. No pressings are used in this wine. Matured on lees in a combination of old Austrian and French oak foudre, puncheon and ceramic eggs for 11 months. Certified Organic/Biodynamic.

98 points, "High Sands is always a landmark wine, a site-reflective icon of peerless husbandry and elaboration, but it can be imposing, needing time and reflection. This is different, though, finely tuned, lucid, silky and sophisticated, and feeling even more expressive
of place. A great, cool vintage, yes, with both depth and levity, but Pete Fraser’s quarter turns of the screw are also palpable. Fruits are red and black, ripe but with some tart wild tension, dusted in heady Baharat spicing, the heartbeat of old-vine power pulsing insistently within. Flavour descriptors feel ineffectual, though. It’s the sheer graceful power of the thing that’s so beguiling, as it noiselessly swoops in, catching you in the updraft of its immense wingspan. By any measure, this is a great wine." - Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)

98 points, "Deep, bright, youthful purple-red colour with a sweet blackberry pastille, mixed spice and almost jammy raspberry coulis flavours. The wine is very full bodied and concentrated, dense and massive, with amazing depth of flavour and serious tannins adding great authority to the structure, which will ensure it ages superbly. This is a most impressive grenache. Long term." - Huon Hooke (The Real Review)

98 points, "Medium ruby-red with a bright purple tone. Raspberry, Turkish Delight and Chinese five spice aromatics. Palate is seamless and silken: red fruits, exotic spices, dry earth and rose petals all flow across the palate, all entwined with a fine net of acidity and tannin that lifts and drives it. The never-ending finish is a chorus of fruit and spice with the finest grained but persistent tannins ensuring you keep returning to admire it." - Stuart Knox (The Real Review)

96 points, "Often the best grenache at this stellar site and certainly the most robust, without any sense of excess of heaviness. Sandalwood, campfire and almost pithy red cherry and amaro liqueur notes. Some tamarind and sarsaparilla. It’s not dissimilar to top Nebbiolo, both flavour-wise and structurally. The finish is juicy but tightly wound, auguring for a long future in the cellar. Drinkable now, but best from 2029." - Ned Goodwin (JamesSuckling.com)

94+ points, "Cherry, raspberry, biscuit spice and mint/menthol, saline too, with a rosy perfume. It’s a bold wine, and the spicy oak certainly shows some impact (especially after tasting the Ovitelli), there’s a lot of grip and flesh to tannin, and there’s something of a sizzled sage leaf flavour in the wine too. Maybe it’s a little bit warm in alcohol, and the tannin feels a little furry, though there’s no shortage of flavour and impact, and its length and power augers well for time in the cellar." - Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)