Thistledown She’s Electric Grenache 2024
Aromatic and lifted on the nose with a beautifully layered, textural palate with wild strawberry and spice.
“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. Drink or hold. Screw cap.”
96 Points – James Suckling
“The cuvée name and label art acknowledge the event that saw a bird electrified in power lines and torch half the vineyard – this comes from the remnant old vines. A pale, pinot-like hue, this is stunningly aromatic, red fruited, blooming with rose notes, though it’s also savoury and spicy. There’s fennel seed, a twigginiess of bunch, white pepper and cassia bark, a mulchy, dry-toned forest floor character, warm earth, a little salinity. Poised and elegant of feel, with almost a pinosity, echoing the colour. A little time in bottle is needed to cohere fruit and bunch notes, but the promise of intriguing tertiary fragrance is an exciting prospect.”
95 Points – Halliday Wine Companion
“The 2024 Grenache She’s Electric Single Vineyard is vibrant and enticing as it bursts with juicy red cherry, bacon fat and fruit pastille aromas with a gentle dusting of spice. This is shapely and approachable, with fleshy textures accented by supple, sandy tannins that underpin a long and fine finish.”
93 Points – Vinous
“The vinous equivalent of strawberry Starburst (sans sugar), this is a heady, highly crowd-pleasing Grenache from a team that’s elevating this variety Down Under. It’s fresh, dry, floral and fruity—and light on its feet without falling off a cliff, thanks to a snappy, sappy line of tannins that keep it on terra firma. Drink with a slight chill on a warm spring day and marvel at the beauty of old vine McLaren Vale Grenache.”
93 Points – Wine Enthusiast
89 Points – Wine Spectator
A hugely important wine for Thistledown as this helped to redefine what contemporary, old vine Grenache is all about. This is a single vineyard project inspired by a remarkable, typically Australian tale. When Thistledown visited the first time, it was noticeable that there was a patch of young vines in the middle of the old vine plot. It turns out that there had been a power cut and during the outage some birds perched on a power line that crosses the vineyard. As the electricity surged through the line again, a combustible bird fell to the ground and set fire to the vineyard, destroying half of the original vines making a scarce resource even scarcer. Thankfully half of the vines survived and the fruit used for this wine, is from the older part of the vineyard. Perhaps showing his age, Giles immediately thought of the song She’s Electric by UK band Oasis, and from that moment on, the name became synonymous with this incredible old vineyard. Drawing on the themes of energy and current, Thistledown pick this wine early which, when combined with the wild, 50% whole bunch ferment and gentle plunges ensures a wine that may be pale, but is oh so aromatic, textural and infused with wild red fruits, herbs and minerals with layers of flavor that unfurl across the tongue.
This comes from a dry grown, 70 year old bush vine vineyard, on red-brown sandy loams with quartz and ironstone, in the Seaview district of McLaren Vale, overlooking the Onkaparinga gorge. Farmed using organic principles, the wide spacing, small vines and extensive cover crops give this vineyard a distinctly natural feel. The low yielding vines (1.5 ton/ acre) with good, open canopies, allowed for perfectly ripe fruit to be handpicked with bright fruit and crisp natural acidity. The fruit was hand-picked early in the morning before swift transport to the winery where we retained 50% whole bunches. A gentle foot pressing helped establish the wild ferment. Once fermented, the wine was transferred to 500l puncheons & 300 litre used French oak hogsheads where it stayed for 8 months before being bottled unfined and unfiltered.
2775 bottles produced.
