2006 Onkaparinga Grenache
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Tasting notes
The 2006 Grenache Onkaparinga leads with sweet roasted meat notes and tapenade, star anise and nougat even. There is an inherent sweetness here not noted outside of the 1996 Blewitt Springs Vineyard tasted earlier today. Sealed under natural cork, and poured from magnum.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate
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A blend of 100% Grenache that comes from a plot of vines planted in 1928 and located a scant 15 kilometers from the ocean (just north of McLaren Vale), the 2006 Clarendon Hills Grenache Onkaparinga, aged for 18 months in 1-5 year-old, 100% French oak barrels, is spectacular stuff! Incredibly complex, with gorgeous aromas of raw meats, rosemary, loamy earth, exotic spice, flowers, and plum sauce like aromas literally soaring from the glass, this full-bodied, seamless Grenache has no hard edges, fantastic concentration, and a hedonistic, yet brilliantly focused and lengthy finish. Stunning aromatically, this doesn’t lose a beat on the palate and delivers loads of flavor and intensity while staying light and elegant on the palate. It’s unique, could come from nowhere else, and is drinking spectacularly now, opening up over the evening and still going strong on the second day. I see no reason it won’t continue to shine for another decade or more.
About the producer
Based in the McLaren Vale, Clarendon Hills has been one of the pioneering names in Australian wine. Focusing on single-site expressions of individual grapes, working with old dry-farmed vineyards, it has become one of the world’s leading producers, best known for its iconic Astralis Shiraz.