Willunga 100 McLaren Vale Tempranillo 2022
Bright aromatics of cherry and red berries with hints of spice. The palate is a little more generous and leans towards blue fruits with blackberries, warm spice and an earthiness that gives the wine a savoury profile. The tannins are fine grained and persistent, supported by a juicy acidity.
The Tempranillo grape variety is ideally suited to the Mediterranean climate of McLaren Vale. The grapes come from two different sites -one a cooler vineyard at higher altitude in the subregion of 'Tatachilla', the other closer to the coast in 'Sellicks' with a more moderate climate. The vines are trellised with a single cordon.
Fruit was crushed and chilled to a stainless steel open fermenter for a four day cold soak then underwent fermentation with indigenous yeasts. Fermented to dry on skins, then basket pressed three days after alcoholic fermentation had finished when the structure of the wine felt balanced and complete. Once pressed, the wine was racked off gross lees to old French oak puncheons for malolactic conversion and maturation. Wine remained in barrel for eight months. No fining, vegan friendly.
| RRP | £15.99 |
| Bottle size | 75cl |
| Vintage | 2022 |
| Alcoholic strength | 14% |
| Country | Australia |
| Region | South Australia |
| Subregion | McLaren Vale |
| Grapes | Tempranillo 100% |
| Residual sugar (g/l) | 0.3 |
| Vegetarian | Yes |
| Vegan | Yes |
| Organic | No |
| Biodynamic | No |
| Closure | Screwcap |
| Winemaker | Skye Salter |
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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