Willunga 100 Blind Spot Vineyard Blewitt Springs Grenache 2024
On the nose, aromas of mixed berries (red berries and raspberries) dominate the fruit expression but with some darker blackberries and cherries present too, underpinned by warm spices, hints of pepper and dried herbs. The palate starts soft and textural with good fruit intensity and earthy complexity. The wine has great length, fine acidity and finishes with some chewy tannins.
Fruit is sourced from Willunga 100's own estate vineyard 'Blind Spot' in the sub-region of Blewitt Springs. It is 100% dry grown bush vine Grenache from the south west facing “15 Acre Block”, which sits at an elevation of 170 metres. Vine age is approximately 55 years old. The soils of the vineyard are deep Maslin sand over a base of ironstone and clay.
Fruit was hand harvested, destemmed and whole berry sorted into stainless steel open fermenters. The whole berry ferment spent 11 days on skins, during which time it was gently plunged to ensure optimum extraction while maintaining delicate aromatics. The wine was basket pressed off skins before maturation and malolactic fermentation on lees, the majority in stainless steel to retain fruit purity and freshness.
Willunga 100 has focused on old-vine Grenache in McLaren Vale since its first vintage in 2005. They made their first single-vineyard wine in 2009 and have since helped pioneer a fresher, more lifted style that highlights the sensitivity of Grenache to site in the Blewitt Springs and Clarendon sub-zones.
Willunga 100 has sourced fruit since 2013 from two of the most fabled vineyards in McLaren Vale, Sue Trott’s 70-year-old site in Blewitt Springs and the Smart family’s century-old one-hectare vineyard in Clarendon. “When we started buying fruit from Sue Trott and the late Bernie Smart, nobody else wanted it. Today, there is a queue stretching all the way to Adelaide to buy grapes from these sites,” says part-owner David Gleave.
The same winemaking techniques are used for both wines. While 10% of the Trott grapes are retained as whole bunch to lend aromatics to a warmer site, the Smart grapes are destemmed but not crushed, the aim being to enhance the perfumes of this more elegant site. The rest of the winemaking is identical: about 12 days on skins in small open-top fermenters with gentle punching down and malolactic in tank, followed by ageing on lees in stainless steel for 12 months before bottling. These unoaked wines come from sites that are only 8 minutes apart by car, yet they are markedly different in style. In Clarendon, the aromatic lift comes more from the proximity to the Adelaide Hills rather than from the loamy, silty soils, while in Blewitt Springs, the Maslin sand soils act as a trigger on Grenache’s aromatics.
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