Head Wines Old Vine Grenache 2022

Description

Winemaker Alex Head’s dream to make elegant Barossa wines began in 1999 while travelling through some of Europe’s greatest wine growing regions, along with his longheld fascination with the synergy of good wine, fine food and happy company at the table. Head Wines is all that and more.

Alex follows a traditional négociant model, an old practice where the winemaker does not grow their own grapes, instead working with a number of small growers. Around three-quarters of the grapes that end up in Head Wines’ bottles are sourced from a carefully chosen selection of these elevated Eden Valley sites. All of these vineyards are farmed sustainably using organic principles where possible; yields are controlled and grapes are hand-picked.

Not being tied to his own vineyards has allowed Alex to spend years understanding the strengths and weaknesses of a number of sites in pursuit of his individual style. Alex creates great Barossan wines that are memorably balanced whilst pursuing styles that are intentional and truly of place. This is sublime winemaking.

About this wine from the winemaker: “I am privileged to work with small parcels of fruit from old, dry-grown, hand-pruned and picked vineyards across the Barossa. In 2009, I decided to make Grenache the way Barossan families made table wines many generations ago, to honour the years of back-breaking work required for keeping the bush-vine vineyards feasible and sustainable.

In 2022, there were an incredible amount of Grenache vineyards available to achieve the ‘Old Vine’ bottling. In the end we found a blend of Krondorf (1942), and Springton (1858) completed the wine. Partial whole-bunch ferment, no crushing or temperature control, natural yeasts, hand plunged and foot trodden. Racked once during elevage of 12 months in neutral Austrian barrel.”

“The 2022 comes from the 2nd of the 3 La Nina vintages in a row and has a wonderful vibrancy to the core of dark fruit & prettier aromatics than the behemoths from 2019 & 2020. The rise and rise of Grenache’s popularity has taken me a little by surprise. It was only 14 years ago I started campaigning for Grenache to be Barossa’s premier variety. “

95+ points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front “Given the prices of some Grenache these days (no problem with that, I should add), this seems something of a bargain. Raspberry, cherry, almond, a little spice, dried rose perfume, incense and aniseed. It’s medium-bodied, fresh and red fruited, distinctly nutty with hazelnut and almond, lovely fine crunch to acidity, dense but silky emery board tannin, and a finish of impeccable length. It’s a superb expression of old vine Grenache, and so beautifully made.”

RRP $44  Our Price $40.99

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