Stephen Pannell’s Many-Splendoured Grenache
“The perfume is alluring. The wine is not about weight. There’s a lightness of touch on the palate that makes you think and engage with the wine. Making those wines that are contradictory, that’s the hardest thing to do.”
Stephen Pannell is talking about Nebbiolo—except we’re really talking about Grenache. And, as he’s wont to do, he’s hit the nail on the head on the latter’s perceived limitations. Love, after all, is a many-splendored thing. Is Grenache?
On tasting Steve's three single-site releases from 2022, I took the opportunity to speak to this guru of Grenache about how to convince others of the tension, texture and complexity this grape can achieve.
Mark of Purity: Grenache The Bulman Way
Forthright, articulate and relatively young, Mark Bulman is an Australian winemaker with an outsize reputation for Grenache. He created one of Australia's best-loved rosés from the variety, was the first to win the prestigious Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy for a Grenache and made an acclaimed wine from it in the Southern Rhône cru of Gigondas. Now he's released the first Australian reds under his own name, and they're distinctive, riveting wines. It's not surprising, given his love of Grenache and his conviction in crafting wines that show its potential to convey a sense of place, pleasure and surprise.
Hither & Yon: The path of Leask persistence
The most impressive thing about Richard Leask might well be his ordinariness. The wine world loves its myths. We glorify rarity and romanticise the Sisyphean image: nature the rock, perfection the pinnacle and Sisyphus the aloof, maybe cranky, grower. But this story doesn’t centre on a mythical figure; it gathers around the kind of Aussie everyman whose example—by dint of being unexceptional—is eminently followable. What’s more, the Hither & Yon co-founder’s affection for McLaren Vale and wine itself is as plain and contagious as the common cold.
The Mount Mary mantra
With an unflinching faith in their vineyard and sense of finesse, the Middleton family’s wines have become as sought after as any in Australia. Sam Middleton tells Ed Merrison about sticking to your guns while restlessly seeking refinement.
G.D. Vajra: A sense of the famiglia
Art, wine and family have always been intertwined at the Piedmont estate G.D. Vajra. Giuseppe Vaira shares with Ed Merrison a story of profound, unprejudiced and unhurried learning.
Strange Case Of Dr Tim & Mr Shand
Tim Shand has an alter ego. There’s Tim: Offspring of two teachers, incisive, earnest looking – even a touch of the nerds about him. Logistics whizz; lob a few moving parts at him and he won’t flinch – just knock up something tidy in no time. And then there’s Shandy: Impish grin, sense of mischief, sub-surface surge of quiet confidence. Bit of a smart-arse; probably rubs a few people up the wrong way. Intuitive, impulsive and with more flair than perhaps he realises.
Talk to him you and you sense the tension between Tim and Shandy, something akin to the counterbalance ‘twixt smooth fruit and acid cut, has always been there. This profile, written in July 2017, looks at this multifaceted talent that was always destined to go far.
Dream Weaver: An Adelaide Hills pioneer
“It’s just so grand to be there,” says Geoff Weaver of his slice of Adelaide Hills heaven. “It’s beautiful to be engaged in what’s essentially an agricultural, horticultural and artistic pursuit in this glorious countryside,” he says
Theresa Breuer, the rebel’s daughter
Theresa Breuer was just 20 when her father Bernhard - perhaps Germany’s doughtiest campaigner for its dry Riesling - died suddenly in 2004. But she barely blinked before continuing the Rheingau estate’s trajectory as one of the finest in the world.
To be dexeterous & deft
“The ups and downs were extraordinary,” says Tod Dexter of the Mornington Peninsula’s learning curve. In fact, his journey is full of twists and turns of all sorts, beginning with a US ski season that turned into a life in wine. Ed Merrison of Vininspo! has the story.
TWR’s Anna Flowerday plays it cool
Anna Flowerday of TWR says “cool” a lot. This passionate organic wine-grower and champion of regenerative viticulture shows that working hard is dead cool when you do what you love and love what you grow.
Don Quijote de la Yarra
“I’ve always enjoyed a sense of adventure, and as you get older you realise that pretty much everyone is on a journey in some respect,” says Andrew Marks. The self-styled Wanderer’s peregrinations between the Yarra Valley and Spain’s Costa Brava make him obvious fodder for Vininspo!