The Everest Old Vine Grenache 2018

Immensely complex and engaging, the bouquet shows dark berry, spicy oak, thyme and game characters with a touch of dark cocoa. It's delicious on the palate offering outstanding concentration and silky flow, wonderfully complemented by savoury nuances and polished tannins. At its best: 2024 to 2040.

Deep red colour with purple still lingering in the meniscus. The bouquet is red-fruited, raspberries to the fore, but cloaked in other complexing aromas such as peppermint, crushed leaf and subtle spices, while the palate is decadently rich and fruit-sweet, opulent and lush, with abundant soft tannins caressing and cleansing the long-lasting finish. Lovely balance: oak if used at all is discreet. Terrific length. A truly gorgeous grenache. Peak Drinking 2021- 2036

GRAND GOLD MEDAL

Deep crimson. Scented/ lifted musky plum, mulberry aromas with background sage, herbs and Australian brush notes. Concentrated, round and satin-smooth with deep set musky plum, mulberry, raspberry fruits, gingerbread, roasted chestnut savoury notes, plentiful looseknit chalky fine tannins and integrated acidity. Finishes long and sweet with lasting aniseed notes. A classic Barossa grenache with lovely colour, density and alcohol balance. Not a long-lasting style and worth drinking sooner than later. Drink now – 2028

The drinker is left in no doubt that the producer is aiming high with The Everest name. The bottle is heavy, deep punted and expensive. The price tag is an eye-watering $330 a bottle and, weighing inattentive 15% alcohol, it is certainly in the upper reaches for the Grenache grape. That said, the Rhone grape carries it well.

There are structures in place – tannin and oak – holding firm and keeping the wine’s big, complex personality in check. Aromas are heady. Earth-clay, blackberry, liquorice, lifted spices of clove, rosemary and, throughout, the lilting thread of aromatic lavender. A lovely clarity of fruit on the palate together with grenache confection notes. It is matched by complimentary savouriness of earth, prune, leather. All is securely in place for a long life.

The team at Chateau Tanunda have thrown everything at this wine and made what is clearly a house style of grenache. While many new wave grenache from the Barossa and McLaren Vale are now hitting the market with a focus on pretty and subtle styles, this is a chunky wine with the inherent richness of the Barossa and Greenock on full show.

Deeply coloured and flavoured, it opens up with bold liquorice, baked earth and spicy notes over a bed of dark cherry and boysenberry fruits – French oak well matched thanks to 18 months in barrel. The palate takes a more structural turn, fruit and oak tannins coming together to provide a firm backbone with mouthfilling blackberry and fruit pastille flavours giving a distinctly decadent feel before a long and strong finish. It’s a big wine for sure, an Everest you might say.