12 Thistledown Wines including…
2024 Thistledown Fool on the Hill Grenache
Ranked #1 Barossa Grenache and 97 Points,
“…off-the-charts” - The Real Review
97+ Points - Erin Larkin, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
96 Points “This is a wine to watch.”- Marcus Ellis. Halliday Wine Companion
2024 Thistledown She's Electric Grenache
96 Points - James Suckling
95 points - Halliday Wine Companion
95 points - The Real Review
2022 Thistledown Where Eagles Dare Shiraz
98 points - #1 Top Wine - David Sly, Decanter
96 Points - Halliday Wine Companion
95 Points - Erin Larkin, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
95 Points - Stuart Knox, The Real Review
Top Ranked #7 - Shiraz from Eden Valley 22”, The Real Review
2024 Thistledown Sands of Time Grenache (New Release)
98 Points - The Real Review
97+ Points - Erin Larkin, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
97 Points - Halliday Wine Companion
2023 Thistledown Sands of Time Grenache (Magnum)
Halliday Top 100 Wines 2024
97 Points - Halliday Wine Companion
97 Points - Erin Larkin, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
96 Points - The Real Review
2022 Thistledown Sands of Time Grenache
GOLD McLaren Vale Wine Show
96+ points - Robert Parker Wine Advocate
96 points - Halliday Wine Companion
96 points - Decanter
96 points - James Suckling
96 points - The Wine Front
Saturday November 22
Hosted by Giles Cooke MW, Founder, Owner & Head Winemaker
Lunch: 12-2.30pm, 12 Wines & 4 Course Menu, $190
Masterclass: 3-5pm, 12 Wines with Kate Lamont nibbles, $80
Wise Words from the Critics…
“…unquestionably world class”
Panel, Halliday Wine Companion
“…this is a super wine, fragrant and detailed, long and complex. Yes!”
Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
“There are very few wines that I look forward to more than the top duo of grenache from Thistledown”
Ned Godwin MW, jamessuckling.com
“Thistledown is fast-becoming one of the great stories of Oz fine wine”
Madigan Media (Anthony Madigan)
“They rival the very finest in the world.”
Top 100 Wines James Suckling (Ned Goodwin MW)
“Winemaker Giles Cooke MW is somewhat of a folk hero these days, thanks to his work championing the grenache variety.”
Best Australian Wines (Matthew Jukes)
The Thistledown Story
Today, Thistledown is a Halliday Wine Companion 5 red star winery, a Real Review Top Winery of Australia and a certified member of Sustainable Winegrowing Australia (SWA). They consistently receive very high scores and praise from the world’s most respected wine writers and publications.
Thistledown is demonstrating that South Australian wine is truly world class - deserving its place on the finest tables and shelves, and in cellars across the world. With Giles Cooke MW responsible for winemaking, his focus on old vines, “picking on-the-way-up”, whole bunch inclusion and wild ferments, has enabled him to faithfully translate site into bottle. The aim is to make wines of great purity, precision and energy rather than a reliance on power, alcohol or oak.
thistledownwines.com
Masters of Wine, Giles Cooke & Fergal Tynan, shared vision for a more elegant, textural interpretation of Australian wine. With access to many of the best vineyards, and winemaking by Giles, Thistledown champions South Australia’s old vine Grenache and have quickly garnered a reputation for being amongst the best in the country.
thistledownwines.com
The Wine List & Menu
First Bracket
2023 Thistledown Walking With Kings Roussanne Grenache Blanc
52/48% roussanne/grenache blanc. Both varieties were barrel fermented, with the grenache oxidatively handled prior, and both wild fermented; 11 months in barrel. Lifted orchard florals and fruits, with pear, golden and pink apples, brown spices and ginger, the nose aromatically complex, fragrant but not overt. The palate has a similar quiet complexity, with succulent acidity paired with a citrus pith tension and neatly judged textural flex. A very fine expression.
95 Points - Marcus Ellis. Halliday Wine Companion
2024 Thistledown Suilven Chardonnay
Back after a couple of years' hiatus, this is now bottled under screw cap. Fermented wild in seasoned oak, with a portion in ceramic egg. Refinement is king here, with classic chardonnay winemaking present, but quietly so; the fruit elegant, taut, but not lacking for intensity, suspended on a line of vigorous, ripe acidity and a chalky structural pithiness. White stone fruit, crisp golden apple and Lisbon lemon. Plus, a little spice with faint notes of ground ginger, clove and allspice. There’s an appealing savouriness to this, a confident quietude of making. It’s excellent, and it has the bones to age.
96 Points - Marcus Ellis. Halliday Wine Companion
Tempura prawn, miso mayo
Second Bracket
2022 Thistledown The Quickening Shiraz
Eden Valley fruit gives vibrant purple notes that capture brightness and vitality. It’s luscious and opulent on opening, with sharp redcurrant and wild raspberry crowding around the black hedge fruits before black pepper starts to bite in the mid-palate, accentuating some crunch and crisp structure. The sharp closure of fine-grained tannins and long acid line running underneath makes this deeply satisfying.
95 Points - David Sly, Decanter
2021 Thistledown The Quickening Shiraz
Now this is a treat. The cool 2021 season has really gifted the 2021 The Quickening Shiraz with detail, openness and poise, and the tannins emerge as being one of the true highlights. They are ultra fine and grippy, a little bit chewy, and serve to frame the fruit in such a way that they extend the line and length of the experience. I'm smiling as I type this, and I think that's a great sign that I like the wine very much. Delicious.
95 Points - Erin Larkin, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
2022 Thistledown Where Eagles Dare Shiraz
The nose is pretty, with violets and a blackberry hedge in the morning mist, like a subdued French perfume – all nuance and suggestion rather than an overt statement. The fruit speaks with the same understated confidence, coming from a single vineyard in Eden Valley. There are measured blackberry, biting tart blackcurrant and cranberry high notes, all drawn taut into a long savoury finish. A grand, handsome wine, elegantly constructed.
98 points - #1 Top Wine - David Sly, Decanter
Mushroom tart, Parmesan cream
Third Bracket
2024 Thistledown She's Electric Grenache
Attractive and refined yet so vivid and full of energy. A pristine grenache with dried strawberries and leaves, frozen raspberries, wild herbs and a touch of agave too. Juicy and precise with bright character on the palate. It's sharp and seamless with a kick of dried herbs and peppercorns mingling with the gentle red fruit. Intense flavors and length in the finish.
96 Points - James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com
2023 Thistledown Vagabond Grenache
From four Blewitt Springs sites, all old, dry-grown bush vine. One parcel was fermented in a concrete pyramid with crushed fruit and whole bunches, the rest open fermented with 35% whole bunches; maturation mainly in old puncheons. 2023 has delivered grenache of beguiling perfume. In the best examples there's also depth, spice and the structural architecture to age. Such is the case here. Dusky dark rose, cherry, wild raspberry, ground cinnamon, rosehip and bergamot tea with a ferrous substratum. The tannins across the ’23 grenache bottlings at this address are excellent, assertive in a finely sandy and gently pithy way.
95 Points - Marcus Ellis. Halliday Wine Companion
2022 Thistledown Vagabond Grenache
Blewitt Springs, an Australian grand cru equivalent. Old bush vines, as is the wont. Wild fermented with a good portion of whole bunches, some in concrete pyramids sans agitation, before ageing in concrete and large neutral oak. Brilliant! Like a slinky, before release over the top step, as riffs on persimmon, Seville orange, rosehip, pomegranate and impeccably ripe cherry clafoutis unwind and expand with a rattle. Long. A sandy scape of gorgeous tannins. World class.
96 Points - Ned Goodwin MW, Halliday Wine Companion
Gnocchi, duck, green peppercorn butter
Fourth Bracket
2024 Thistledown Fool on the Hill Grenache
97+ Points - Erin Larkin, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
An intense note of raspberry essence mixes with dried rose petals and subtle kelp aromas. It's almost playing cat and mouse - you think it's presented itself, and then more aromas appear: fresh leather and sour cherries. The palate is a beam of flavour, echoing the nose. A crescendo of silty tannins carries the flavours along, never interfering with graceful expression. This is glorious grenache providing off-the-charts enjoyment. It's so complete in its youth and will only gain greater complexity with age.
Ranked #1 of 15 2024 Grenache from Barossa - The Real Review
97 Points - Gabrielle Poy, The Real Review
2024 Thistledown Sands of Time Grenache
A fragrant and charismatic nose of raspberry jelly crystals, heady spices, rosehip and English Breakfast tea leaves you in a fix. Its buoyant and bright core is supported by a scaffolding of fine silty tannins that coat the tongue and ever so slightly pucker the cheeks. It's beautifully tactile and transparent. This is among the most exciting Aussie wines I've had in a long time - and it's only one year old. It's full-bodied with incredible grace and poise. Wow! I'd love to have this for the cellar.
98 Points - Gabrielle Poy, The Real Review
2023 Thistledown Sands of Time Grenache (Magnum)
From the Trott vineyard in Blewitt Springs, planted in 1952 to deep sand. Fermented in alternating layers of whole bunches and crushed fruit in concrete; maturation in oak and concrete for 10 months. This is coiled but given air, the potential is evident, if not fully revealed. Blue and red floral notes, dark red cherries, orange oil and a humus-like earthiness. This is presently the most reticent member of the ’23 grenache suite, with acidity feeling vigorous against the tensile complement of tannins, both cinching in the fruit presently. Based on the track record and the impeccable framing of fruit and site that’s already evident, this will grow amply in stature, and what an exciting prospect that is.
Halliday Wine Companion Top 100 Wines of 2024 and 97 Points - Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
2022 Thistledown Sands of Time Grenache
GOLD McLaren Vale Wine Show
The 2022 Sands of Time Old Vine Single Vineyard Grenache was one of the loveliest Grenaches that I tasted from McLaren Vale last year, and it again presents with a hedonistic display of sweet ripe fruit, supple blood orange inflections on the tannic structure and layer upon layer of flavor and texture. All of the components are enmeshed and present as one. The tannins are again my favorite part of this picture: sandy (Blewitt Springs), pluming, uber-fine and absolutely ever present. This is a big wine but so detailed. 14.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
96+ Points - Erin Larkin, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
Seared sirloin, roast tomato, salsa verde
To Finish…