2020 High Sands Grenache
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Tasting notes
The 2020 High Sands Grenache comes from a unique vintage: it was the lowest-yielding vintage ever made of this wine. The growing/ripening part of the season was cold, and lest we forget the global environment that served to shape us all, for better and for worse. The wine in the glass is so concentrated and tannic; it unfurls as it sits in the mouth and really displays its tannic fortitude with authority and focus. This is a wine that will live for an extraordinarily long time. The fruit is firmly in the pomegranate molasses, black cherry, exotic spice spectrum. It's more about its tannin wrap than its fruit core. 14.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
James Suckling
More reviews and scores
From a 1.7-hectare block of the oldest (1946 planting) and highest (210 m) Grenache bush vines at Yangarra. Destemmed, 50% whole berries, open fermenters, 21-day maceration, maturation in older, large-format oak and sandstone egg for 11 months. A little more depth of colour than the 2021 Ovitelli Grenache, tasted alongside. Beautiful, relaxed, delicate aromas; subtle, complex, some red hedgerow berries, rose hip, rounded, elegant, mouth-filling but ethereal, with super-fine, long, supple tannins. Entrancing. (MA)
This has such precision with aromas of blackberries, cloves, raspberries, black tea, rooibos, dried rosemary and iron shavings. Dark and mineral with a medium body and a firm, very fine and tight tannin frame. Fantastic tension and freshness. From biodynamically grown grapes. Better from 2024. Screw cap.
About the producer
One of the leading names in Australian wine, managed today by Peter Fraser, Yangarra farms its 90 hectares of vines biodynamically. The McLaren Vale estate works with Rhône varieties and is best known for its outstanding Grenache, the top botting of which is its High Sands cuvée.