Willunga 100, `Smart Vineyard` Clarendon Grenache

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.

The focus on single sites has brought critical success to Willunga 100. The 2021 ‘Smart’ won the Grenache trophy at Australia’s National Wine Show in 2023. This is the second time a Willunga Grenache has been honoured with a trophy at the show, as in 2017, the 2015 ‘Trott’ took home Best Alternative Variety. Awards success continued in 2024, with Willunga 100 winning two of the three gold medals awarded in the Grenache class at the National Wine Show for the 2022 McLaren Vale Grenache and 2022 ‘Trott’. The 2023 ‘Smart’ also triumphed at the 2024 Melbourne Royal Wine Awards, winning Best Grenache trophy and being named one of the top 6 contenders for the legendary Jimmy Watson trophy.

Willunga 100 purchased the ‘Blind Spot’ vineyard in 2019. This 19-hectare site, in the heart of Blewitt Springs on Maslin sands, has close to eight hectares of old, bush-trained Grenache. This vineyard is the source of Willunga 100’s Grenache and Grenache Rosé, both of which are single vineyard wines. The former has about 15% whole bunch in the 2022 vintage, which lifts the naturally aromatic fruit of Grenache grown on Maslin sand, while the latter is pale, dry and, as they say in Australia, ‘smashable’. New to the range are the 2023 ‘Blind Spot’ Grenache and the 2023 ‘Blind Spot Moritz Block’ Shiraz. Awarded 95 points and Gold in James Halliday’s Wine Companion, the ‘Blind Spot’ Grenache is described, alongside Trott and Smart, as another fine example of single site Grenache: “The clarity of making is the same, with each speaking of site, and all three pure, lithe and vibrant, but ‘Blind Spot’ presents as the slightly more brooding of the trio.”The ‘Blind Spot Moritz Block’ Shiraz is sourced from 13 rows of 90 year old vines. It was awarded an impressive 18 points by Julia Harding MW, who described it as reminiscent of Morey-St-Denis and “more Burgundy than Rhône, demolishing any tired stereotypes of beefy Australian Shiraz.”

Also new to the range is the 2024 Grenache Blanc. The grapes were sourced from one of Sue Trott’s vineyards that lies east of McLaren Flat on a slightly elevated site. The wine was fermented in stainless steel (75%) to retain freshness and used French puncheons (25%) to add texture. Aged on lees for four months before bottling to enhance this texture, the wine displays beautiful vibrancy and offers excellent bang for your buck.