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.
Australian Grenache: No more mister nice guy?
Grenache once covered more of the world’s surface than any other red-wine grape, and certainly had its day in the sun down under. It was never exactly an out-of-work actor, with its juicy, sweet-fruited affability scoring it roles in rosé, everyday blends, chillable varietal reds and even muscular Châteauneuf-du-Pape body doubles.
But a host of hot talents are sharpening up scripts giving this grape a plum role in A-list, single-vineyard wines. So, what’s it going to take to prove that Grenache has the range, depth and gravitas to be a box-office lead—and will the masses line the red carpet to check out its best work?
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.