Wine & Spirits - February 2021 - 20

rest of the valley, it gets warm pretty quickly. It's amazing to see what
a kilometer will do.
" The past two vintages were nice and warm and sunny. And then
'17 was freezing cold. " That was the first vintage with the estate parcel,
which they found, in fact, because it had gone to them in 2016 without their knowledge, a clandestine substitution by a grower who sold
them grapes (but that's a different story). Those ancient vines provided
more than half of their Sucette wine in 2017, and increasingly higher
percentages in recent harvests. The cold provided the other distinctive
ingredient, giving their grenache in granite sands the sort of mysterious freshness and grandeur of the Rockford Basket Press Dry Grown
Grenache wines, especially from back in the 1990s.
" I was in three jackets and had
gloves on, " Carla recalls of the
2017 harvest. " It gets very cold,
and people don't tend to pin that
next to their idea of the Barossa.
It's not a cool climate; let's not get
crazy here. But in certain pockets,
it has a different temperament
than people might assume. "

triumvirate, especially if you consider that garnacha probably originated
in Spain (ground zero believed to be in Aragon), before migrating to
southern France and, eventually, to Australia.
When asked if there's any intentional link back to Rioja, Goodman
reports that she has worked in Spain with Telmo Rodríguez and that,
for David Paxton and his wife, Ang Tolly, Spain has long been a favored
destination. Still, she says, " I think our grenache is more Australian than
it is Spanish. The style that Paxton has moved to seeks the ethereal perfume and the evocative character you can get from grenache. "
Paxton's graciano is also quite different from the variety in Rioja, where
a small amount adds tannic structure to a blend with tempranillo and garnacha. Rarely presented on its own in Rioja, where it can be quite mean,
there's some joy in Paxton's graciano from McLaren Vale.
Seven years ago, the Paxtons
grafted a row of chardonnay to graciano as an experiment and have
been expanding on it since then.
" Graciano likes McLaren Vale, "
Goodman says. " It likes the summer and the heat. When you walk
into the vineyard, pre-harvest,
tasting grapes, the graciano vines
or a third peralways have a freshness to them.
spective on the
The leaves are green and the canAustralian-Mediopies still have energy in them.
terranean soul of
To me, that says they're actually
grenache and its
happy, whereas the shiraz can
siblings, I spoke
look tired. And graciano is a laterwith Kate Goodripening variety, well after shiraz.
man, wine-maker
It takes time for the acid to drop
at Paxton, a biodynamic vineyard
back-and that's coming from
in McLaren Vale. Though Dave
someone who loves acidity. "
and Anne Paxton's collection of
Goodman finds graciano more
seven vineyards in McLaren Vale
challenging to grow than temprafocus mainly on shiraz and grenillo. " Making the acid and tannache, though they are increasing
nin work together, to me, is the
their plantings of new varieties as
biggest challenge of graciano-
they sell out of their tempranillo
to have those two components fit
and graciano wines every year.
Goodman joined the team two
together neatly so you can't see the
years ago to provide some outside
edges of either of them. " It ripens
later and takes time for the acidity
perspective on their winemaking,
to drop back. " I actually prefer the
or, as she told me in a video interTHE BUSH-VINE GRENACHE AT DAVID PAXTON'S LANDCROSS FARM.
feel of tempranillo [to graciano], "
view from her home in McLaren
Vale, " to shake things up a bit. "
she says. " I like the tannins and the
When I complemented her on
supple texture you can get-that
her 2019, a mineral-driven, red-currant-scented beauty from grenache almost chocolatey-rose, Turkish-delight character, compared to that fullvines Paxton planted in the 1990s, Goodman began to wax romantic on pepper in the graciano. " She describes tempranillo as more mainabout grenache in McLaren Vale. She also admitted to just having constream but says there is a lot of interest in them both. " If we could double
tracted a parcel of 120-year-old dry-grown grenache vines in Blewitt production, we could sell it, easily. "
Springs for her own label. " Is it an indulgence? " she asked rhetorically,
Still, it is McLaren Vale's old-vine grenache that has stolen her heart.
her determined eyes behind round, owlish glasses. " Maybe. "
" Can you believe they pulled out old-vine grenache and planted charAt Paxton, she works with 15 acres of grenache, along with more
donnay? " she asks, referring to the government sponsored vine pull
recent plantings of tempranillo (10.6 acres) and graciano, (3 acres, with
that began in 1985. " It makes me want to weep. It was the ugly duckanother 2.5 in the ground this spring). All of that seems diminutive ling, bulk workhorse. It wasn't treated as grenache, it was treated as a
when compared to Paxton's 163 acres of shiraz. But it also forms a Rioja way to make red wine. "

" Graciano likes the summer and the heat. Pre-harvest, the leaves are green and the canopies still have energy. "
-- KATE GOODMAN, PAXTON WINES

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Wine & Spirits - February 2021

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