YALUMBA VINE VALE GRENACHE 2023

Trophy for Champion Grenache – Royal Queensland Wine Awards 2024
Gold Medal – Royal Melbourne Wine Show 2024
Gold Medal – Royal Queensland Wine Awards 2024

Handcrafted from an old vine Grenache block, Vine Vale Grenache is all about the subtlety of whole bunch fermentation. A wine with alluring fragrance, it is complex, savoury and fruit driven. Generous and bright through the palate with a crunch of acidity surrounding the juicy middle palate that Grenache aficionados will love.

Winery notes (2023 Vintage)
"In 2023, the two blocks were wild fermented separately – the first 40% whole bunch, the second 33% whole bunch fruit, resulting in this outstanding expression of Vine Vale Grenache. Bright ruby purple in colour. The initial cedar and herbaceous aromatics open into inviting fragrances of pink grapefruit, red cherry and blueberry. The palate is plush, juicy and succulent. Red and blue fruits are entwined in delicious flavours with bright acidity and fine, powdery tannins. Matured for 6 months in older French oak puncheons.

This old vine Grenache was crafted from two blocks on our Tri-Centenary Vineyard, planted in 1949 and 1929, in the tiny Barossa Valley subregion of Vine Vale. The vineyard features deep sandy loam layers underlain with red-brown clay. These soils tend to be deep, holding an abundance of water that is essential for early season growth. With careful management these dry grown vines, in low organic matter soils, can consistently produce outstanding quality fruit."

95/100 Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front, August 2024 (2023 Vintage)
"From bush vines planted in 1929 and 1949 with some whole bunch in the mix. Talk about personality. This is bunchy, meaty, floral and more, its light-but-bright fruit completely infiltrated by savouriness and smokiness and general herbal complexities. This wine is drastically dry and tannic in, as far as I’m concerned, the best of ways. It works as a wild ride through the streets of modern Australian grenache. I love it."

95/100 Ken Gargett, WinePilot.com, September 2024 (2023 Vintage)
"Of all the wines in the Yalumba Grenache collection, for me, this is the value pick. A cracking wine which is seriously good buying. The fruit comes from old bush vines which were planted in 1929 and 1949 in the Tri-Centenary Vineyard in Vine Vale. The two blocks were harvested for the wine, with the first seeing 40% whole bunch fermentation and the second 33%. A garnet/crimson colour, the nose is utterly gorgeous. This is Grenache on steroids. Strawberries and cream, florals, bergamot, spices and cherries. Take everything that is good about Grenache and it is jam-packed into this wine. It also offers that typical Grenache tannin mix of silky and sandy. Showing good balance and length, this is a superb example of a top-notch Barossa Grenache. Drink now and for the next eight years. Drink 2024-2032."

95/100 QWineReviews.com, September 2024 (2023 Vintage)
"An excellent expression of Grenache, this Yalumba Vine Vale rarely misses the mark. Of all the Grenache wines in the Yalumba range, this is my runaway favourite. Highlighted by pretty florals, delicious fruit and a glorious medium-bodied frame, just sit back, loosen the belt buckle and get comfy.

Sourced from two sites that were planted in 1929 and 1949, attractive scents of lavender and purple flowers set things alight. Waves of cherries, blueberries and mulberries cascade over one another with flashes of raspberry and raspberry rope. Ripples of meatiness, orange peel and a little lick of grape bubblegum all add veneers of pleasure. Delicately spiced, gee it's moreish and fabulously positioned as it seemingly floats about. Delicious!"

94/100 Ray Jordan, WinePilot.com, October 2024 (2023 Vintage)
"Some of the vines for this superb grenache are nearly 100 years old. They produce fruit of generous intensity, supreme balance and subtlety that can be moulded into a marvellous expressive grenache such as this. Perfumed red fruits with a little of that rose petal varietal character. A slightly earthy savoury combination works into the red fruits of the palate creating a layered complexity."