Thistledown This Charming Man Grenache 2022 McLaren Vale

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
96/100 punten
The 2022 The Charming Man Single Vineyard Grenache hails from a single vineyard in Clarendon, named after Bernard Smart. I haven't met a producer in McLaren Vale yet that doesn't light up at the mention of this man and his vineyard. So, to the wine. It offers blood orange, rosemary, a hint of sage, fresh blood, layers of raspberry pip, a hint of star anise and loads of ground exotic five spice. This is supple and flowing in the mouth, with the 20% whole-bunch inclusion a suggestion of complexity and not an overwhelming quality. All of the components are in balance and harmony: it has no more fruit than tannin, no more flavor than freshness, no more complexity than vivacity. This is sensational and comes from an excellent vintage to boot.

James Suckling
97/100 punten
The qualitative apogee when it comes to grenache, rivalled by few and equalled only by Yangarra. Even better than the superb 2021. Sourced from the highest, coolest site in the Vale, the venerable Smart vineyard. Ironstone imparts a ferrous bite to pithy sour cherry, cranberry, campfire, pomegranate, tamarind and sandalwood notes with a grind of white pepper across a lattice of pin bone tannins, curtailing sweetness while promoting stunning length. This is excellent. Superb! Transparent and brimming with a sense of pinoté, like a mini Rayas. A great wine of the present as much as the future. Among Australia's very greatest reds. I don't score above 97, but this could be worth a point higher.

The Wine Front
95+/100 punten
Clarendon. Some vines up to 100 years of age. Black and red fruits, baking spice, floral too, with some thyme and cocoa. It’s lively, quite stony in feel, a lovely crunch and freshness to acidity, quite concentrated but still light on its feet. The finish pulls more to spiced strawberry and raspberry, with flowering herb perfume on a very long finish. Delightful." (

Jancis Robinson MW
17,5/20 punten
Made from bush-vine Grenache grown by the ‘charming’ Bernard Smart at Clarendon, in the high north-east corner of McLaren Vale. Ambient-yeast fermented with 20% whole bunch, pressed off to hogsheads, 25% new. This has the aromatic expressive quality you expect to see in slightly cooler-site Grenache in this part of the world – vinous, complex, roses and red lollies – and a lovely, layered quality to the tannins, both crunchy and slippery.