97 points - "This wine. This wine. It didn’t have me at hello but, once I’d sat with it for a bit, I never wanted it to leave. This is an instant entrant into the top tier of Australian wine. It’s tannic. It’s meaty. It’s like a pound of chestnuts set into coal, all sweet nuts and woodsmoke, forest berries and leaves. It presents as one complete whole. If you ever wanted an argument for grenache sans oak, this is the last one you’d ever need to hear. It makes the unplugged seem definitive. It does argue its case, it presents it. Tannin-wise it’s completely unafraid of upsetting anyone; it just does what it wants, and what it wants is both ribboned and imposing. It’s superbly long but then, it’s superb throughout." - Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)

97 points - "It’s a complex thing, with air unlocking layer after layer of detail. Freshly crushed bay laurel, dried cranberry, pickled cherries, orange peel, fading rose petals, bitter red aperitivo and mountain herbs, rolling into dry-warmed spices – cassia, clove and pepper – pink peppercorn, goji and sumac. It’s finely tooled, decidedly and energetically tannic, but not wantonly so, rather they’re schooling, channelling tannins, resolute in direction, the fruit intensity knit within. It’s very fine indeed." - Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)

97 points - "The 2023 Gary's Vineyard Grenache is light in the glass and opens with an abundance of dried rose petals, crushed seashells, dried herbs (particularly rosemary), raspberry pip, peppercorns and black tea. There's a gentle suggestion of roasted meat dusting the edges of perception. In the mouth, the wine is every bit as fragrant and detailed as the nose suggests it will be, with a sway of very fine, grippy tannins and bloody, saturating red fruit. This is savory despite its floral overtones, with the most magnificent, pure tannins sans the impact of oak. This wine is the embodiment of grape-derived tannins and makes a firm case for Grenache without oak, despite my being personally attracted to old large format oak when it comes to Grenache. This feels as if it will age slowly and gracefully. A truly fine wine. The fruit spent 71 days on skins post fermentation and was matured for 178 days in a sandstone amphora.13.7% alcohol, sealed under Diam.

Occasionally, wines make themselves known through the grapevine, so to speak. Some wines make such an impression that word gets out, and we are left with no choice but to track them down. The Bulman Grenaches are such wines. I heard about them from another wine reviewer here in Australia and set out to find how I might taste them.

Mark Bulman was winemaker at Turkey Flat in the Barossa from 2008 and developed a love for Grenache during that time. The 2016 Turkey Flat won the Jimmy Watson Trophy at the Royal Melbourne Wine Show in 2017, the first time a varietal Grenache had won that trophy. It marked a turning point in Bulman's career, and these wines seem to be the starting point, the open door to the next chapter in his career.

While both the Blewitt Springs and Eden Valley wines here are starkly defined and distinct, they are united in their pure representation of Grenache's capability for tannic structure without the support of oak. Both wines are impressively shaped and textured. Both wines make a clear statement of the beauty inherent in this grape in Australia. Resistance, as they say, is futile." - Erin Larkin (The Wine Advocate)

Springs Hill Vineyard established in 1974 with the Grenache planted in 2007.

Ironstone conglomerate mixed with sand and gravel over mottled orange yellow clay at various depths. Part of the North Maslin Sand formation. 200m Altitude. Sitting on a ridge above and benefitting from the orographic lift of McLaren Vale. Facing North on a gentle slope above the Onkaparinga Gorge. Dry grown.

Gary Whaite grew the Grenache for the 2023 Vintage.

2023 Gary’s Vineyard Grenache – Picked on 23/3/23. 7% Whole Bunch. 9 day ferment, 71 days on skins post ferment. 178 days in a sandstone amphora.