2004 Blewitt Springs Grenache
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Tasting notes
The 2004 Old Vine Grenache Blewitt Springs Vineyard is elegant and poised—I like this in line with the 2002. There was rain and elevated yields, and this is the first vintage that Roman's son, Alex, was involved in winemaking. Roman had an accident in the winery and needed Alex to return to the winery from his time in Europe. The wine is layered with pomegranate and raspberry, licorice and star anise, autumn leaves and leather. The characters I find in these wines are consistent through the years, it is just the framing of the season that shapes their direction. This is in line with the 2002 wines that I also loved, and it is aging slowly, aided and abetted by the magnum. Sealed under natural cork.
Critic scores
Average Score
Robert Parker
Josh Raynolds
More reviews and scores
Inky violet. Powerful bouquet of ripe raspberry, boysenberry, blackcurrant and cracked pepper. Berries galore on the palate, with great depth and richness and seemingly invisible tannins. While this clearly possesses the concentration for cellaring, it would be a shame to miss the riot of fruit going on right now.
As usual for this cuvee, the 2004 Grenache Blewitt Springs possesses an extraordinary, exotic, flamboyant personality that causes Roman Bratasiuk to say it’s his “Dolly Parton-styled wine.” Terrific notes of blackberries, raspberries, and rich kirsch liqueur are accompanied by an opulent, flamboyant wine with tremendous viscosity and richness as well as a lusty, heady finish. In short, it’s a mouthfilling, full-bodied red to drink during its first 5-7 years of life. Oct 2006, www.robertparker.com
About the producer
Based in the McLaren Vale, Clarendon Hills has been one of the pioneering names in Australian wine. Focusing on single-site expressions of individual grapes, working with old dry-farmed vineyards, it has become one of the world’s leading producers, best known for its iconic Astralis Shiraz.