98/100 POINTS - James Suckling
So rich, complex and intense with a wealth of very ripe, powerful fruit on offer. Blood-orange and pomegranate notes, together with stony aromas, providing a very complex feel. The palate is super powerful and juicy. So very long, so rich and so well defined, showing mouthwatering tannins and a very sleek, long and juicy drive of red-fruit flavor. This has immense power and carries rich, ripe red and blue fruit. Wow. So intense.

98 POINTS - Christina Pickard - Wine Enthusiast
From a classic Grenache vintage, and from old bush vines growing in ancient, silky, beach-sand-like soils in the Blewitt Springs subregion, this is one of Australia's finest examples of Grenache. While destined for a long life in the cellar, it is an aromatic beauty now, blossoming after several days open in bottle. Pristine red-berry fruit, rose petal, clove, white spice and distinctive minerality comprise the aromas. The palate offers gorgeous texture, juicy, vibrant fruit and sculpted, talc tannins, with elegance, length and complexity. An iron fist in a velvet glove, this should age beautifully through 2036.

97 POINTS
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate
The 2018 High Sands Grenache comes from a warmer year, and almost all the red wines made in South Australia have a powerful fruit presence that appeals to me. 2018 is perhaps a little less complex than other vintages within that decade, but that attribute takes a back seat to the pleasure and texture I find, almost across the board. This wine exactly typifies the conditions of the 2018 season: it is powerful and effortless in its thrust of fruit flavor, and I find it difficult to care that it doesn't have as many variations of "rose" or "asphalt" as, say, the 2017, 2016 or 2015 tasted before it. It's just straight-up delicious, and it's polished too. The fruit was put into Clayvin ceramic kiln-fired vessels to tame the concentration and amplitude of the vintage. And even with that, you gotta love that irrepressible exuberance. Or not, but I do. 14.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

96 POINTS
Stuart Knox - The Real Review
Intense ruby colour, bright and clear throughout the glass. Wine gums, dry earth and wakame on the nose. The palate is medium in weight but full in power. Fruit sits with depth, but the tannin profile is something special in its intensity and grip. Great length, it lingers very long. Time in the cellar is highly recommended as this will age very well. If you're a classical Châteauneuf-du-Pape fan, then this is a wine to note

96 POINTS
Ned Goodwin - Halliday Wine Companion
Sourced from the highest plot of bush vines, planted in 1946. Hand picked, sorted and destemmed to an even combination of both crushed and whole berries. Wild fermented, élévage in eggs and older French oak This is an imperious grenache if that adjective can be ascribed to a grape variety this joyous; this giddy of fruit and yet, underlying it all, a defining totem of immaculately extracted tannins. Kirsch, bramble, anise, clove, sandalwood and wood smoke drive long against a tannic parry: sandy, granular and emery-like.

96 POINTS
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front
French oak and ceramic egg for the maturation. Best block, highest elevation.1946 plantings. You could buy two bottles of the 19 Ovitelli and one of the 19 Hickinbotham for the same price as this, which is what I’d do, but we are all individuals. The High Sands is a darker, more brooding example of Grenache than the other two I mention, and quite different in style. (GW) MB: Garnet coloured with black rim. Looks deep and moody. Wood spice, clove, cedar, darker berries, liquorice, brined olive notes. Trim and taut, controlled and long, serious feeling wine of depth and complexity, seasoned well in a style that favours a bit of mocha-spice oak presence. It fits the premium bill, needs some time, will mature well. Serious, spicy, dark fruited grenache with tension and drive. 94 points. GW: Blackberry, ripe raspberry, sarsaparilla, spicy, with some sweet sawn wood top notes (though nothing overt, I might add). Powerful and firm, dusty and slightly rusty/ferrous tannin, chamomile tea mouth-perfume, maybe even a cola-nut exotic character in the mix, long and shapely, with Barolo-esque tannin to close. Feels long term. Outstanding. 96+ points.

VINTAGE SUMMARY

2018 was a text book growing season, with good winter rains, and favourable weather conditions during a very mild spring. We had a generally dry summer, which led to earlier expected picking dates, especially with lower than average yields. By the end of February and early march the Autumnal nights got quite cool, which really slowed down the ripening process.

WINEMAKING

Hand-picked and mechanically sorted. 100% Destemmed, with 50% whole berries. Cold soak. Open fermenters. Plunged. Wild yeast ferment. No pressings are used in this wine. Kept on lees in 100% older French oak for 11 months. We have selected individual barrels that showcase the pedigree of the deep sand, with lifted fragrance, intense fruit expression and fine, gritty long tannin structure. Not fined.

• Vine Age

  1946 Bush vine

• Soil

  1m deep White Sands (silica – not marine) overlying red/orange clay

• Region

  Blewitt Springs, McLaren Vale, South Australia