Description
Bekker’s McLaren Vale Grenache 2021, SA.
From out of nowhere – or so it feels – Bekkers has shot to Australian wine stardom and this Grenache is leading the charge with the critics. Here is just a selection of what journalists around the world have had to say about this extraordinary drop:
The Weekend Australian
The red berry, cherry and a whisper of dark chocolate define the bouquet and palate of a totally delicious wine. All the flavours of the palate are those promised by the bouquet. It’s only 14% alc/vol and medium bodied; the superb balance guarantees a wine that can be drunk tonight and all steps of the 30 years to follow.
A masterful, harmonious blend.
98 Points
Wild berries, stalky brambles, liquorice and an earthy richness, the heady flavours swirling like a tempest. With fruit sourced from four sites across McLaren Vale, this wine has a complexity many single-site wines can’t achieve. A masterful, harmonious blend. Aged in old French puncheons for 16 months.
Wine Pilot
96 Points
Signature McLaren Vale, the wine is singing before you begin to lift the glass to your face. Crimson rose, fresh raspberries and redcurrant are upfront followed by blackberry, Damson plum skin and Adzuki bean. What follows is an arrangement of parts that, once tasted, meld seamlessly into such a pleasurable wine drinking experience that does not require any further dissection. Fine Mithril tannins (yes it’s fictional chain mail from Lord of the Rings) but it does feel other worldly. A long, very lengthy palate of nutmeg, five spice and King mushroom follow. Devine. Drink with Rabbit stew and don’t forget the poh-tate-toes.
95 Points
The 2021 Grenache leads with pink peppercorns, blood plum skin, green tea, violets, myrrh, hints of almond, rose petal and star anise. So pretty. In the mouth, the wine is detailed and fresh, with fresh cracked pink peppercorns, mulberry, raspberry leaf tea and a hint of nutmeg. This is a beautiful wine, consistently good.
95 Points
A producer firmly entrenched within the regional pantheon, if not playing a very different card to the transparent, red-fruited pinot-like zeitgeist. Blewitt Springs, Kangarilla and Onkaparinga sourcing services sand, ironstone and silty geologies and a shift in ripening windows. The texture is broad with warm and sunny terracotta aromas. Blood plum, clove, tamarind and souk-like exotica buffer the textural midpalate. The finish, long and penetrating. Despite the open-knit attack, there is ample compression at the finish, suggesting further space to unfurl in the cellar. Excellent grenache, glimpsing greats of the southern Rhone.
The Vintage Journal
95 Points
Medium deep crimson. Fragrant strawberry, red cherry, musky plum aromas with dark chocolate, aniseed notes. Beautifully balanced wine with ample strawberry, musky plum fruits, fine graphite/ slinky textures, very good mid palate volume and fresh long juicy acidity with a touch of aniseed at the finish. Lovely modulated power and fruit complexity.
‘Already broad of texture….’
95 Points
A producer firmly entrenched within the regional pantheon, if not playing a very different card to the transparent, red-fruited pinot-like zeitgeist. Blewitt Springs, Kangarilla and Onkaparinga sourcing services sand, ironstone and silty geologies and a shift in ripening windows. Already broad of texture with terracotta aromas warm and sunny. Blood plum, clove, tamarind and souk-like exotica buffer the textural mid-palate. The finish, long and penetrative. Despite the open-knit attack, there is ample compression at the finish, suggesting further space to unwind in the cellar. Excellent grenache, glimpsing greats of the southern Rhône.
Jancis Robinson
16.5++
Average 21% whole-bunch fermented. Aged in old French puncheons for 14 months. Newborn redcurrant fruit aromas on the nose. Silky and fresh on the palate, with finely ground tannin and fruit that is more savoury than ripe, with black-olive complexity. Vigorous enough to last plenty more laps – give this a few years for it to develop complexity.
Jancis Robinson
17.5
A core parcel of old-vine fruit from a vineyard near the town of McLaren Vale, blended with Grenache from vineyards higher up in Kangarilla, Blewitt Springs and the Onkaparinga Hills. More density and flesh than some of the other ‘new-wave’ Australian Grenaches from this part of the world, fruit tending toward the black spectrum rather than the red, with some sweet jujube characters, but not overblown (alcohol closer to 14 than the 15 which has been common with Bekkers Grenache in the past) and with gorgeous, silky, long, well-judged tannins.