Home > Wines We Love > 2025 Dune ‘Maspalomas’ Clarete

The Spanish tradition of making ‘clarete’ wines – red and white co-ferments that land somewhere between chilled reds, rosés, and skin-contact whites – has only recently come back from the brink of extinction. And Australia has already joined the party with this, our country’s first clarete – a quaffable, rose-scented delight of a wine that colours outside of the lines.

Producer
Dune
Region

McLaren Vale
RRP

$32
Vintage

2025
Variety/Varieties

Grenache Grenache blanc
Alc./Vol.

13%

Spain’s traditional ‘clarete’ wines might be pink in hue, but they are not rosés. The colour in rosé comes from taking red grapes and giving their skins only brief contact with the juice before whisking them away; the colour in clarete comes from mixing red and white grapes in the ferment, and giving both components equal amounts of skin-contact time. The resulting wines land at the centre of the Venn diagram of a lot of the current moment’s drinking trends – they look like rosé, drink like a chilled red, and have some of the texture of skin-contact whites. They were also practically extinct in Spain – made only for local consumption – until 2016, when Scott Wasley, an Australian importer of Spanish wine, collaborated with Rioja producer Alegre y Valgañón to reintroduce the style commercially. Not long afterwards, in 2022, brothers Duncan and Peter Lloyd made Australia’s first take on the style, ‘Maspalomas’, co-fermenting whole bunches of grenache with crushed grenache blanc from Blewitt Springs in McLaren Vale. This, the fourth vintage of ‘Maspalomas’, shows why they’re onto a winner with the style.

Tasting Note

Deep pink in the glass, with a slight tinge of burnt orange tone – pitched somewhere between ‘dark rosé’ and ‘ultra-light red’. The nose of this wine opens with delicate and slightly unusual aromatics – dried rose petals, freshly-grated mace, the high-toned boozy funk of kirschwasser. On the palate, the fruit character becomes clearer – juicy tart cranberries, crunchy pomegranate arils, the white tops of just-ripe strawberries. There’s an appealing vibrancy to the wine, despite the fact that it doesn’t have high acidity, with lightly grippy tannins (reminiscent of a good skin-contact white), a touch of phenolic bitterness, and a pop of salinity to keep everything fresh. The texture is juicy and generous, with glossy fruit that doesn’t veer into the realms of ‘overripe’ or ‘slick’. An interesting hint of watermelon rind character emerges on the finish – and draws you back for another sip. Serve lightly chilled.

Themes of this wine

McLaren Vale

While it couldn’t feel any more removed from city life, the McLaren Vale wine region is actually inside Adelaide’s metropolitan area. And although the township itself is only forty minutes by car from central Adelaide and vineyards brush up against ever-encroaching housing, McLaren Vale remains unaffected by the urban sprawl. With deeply etched history, the Vale has a slow-paced sense of calm and an extraordinary wealth of untrammelled beauty. It is home to some of this country’s most beautifully pristine beaches, as well as some of the world’s most forward-thinking grape-growers and winemakers. And with over eighty cellar doors, it is an essential destination for wine lovers – and anyone else, for that matter.

Grenache

The great variety of the Southern Rhône, grenache actually hails from Spain, where it’s called garnacha – but it has found many other homes around the world, from Italy to California. Australia has its own special relationship with the variety – we’re home to the world’s oldest productive grenache vines, planted in 1948. Today, a renaissance is seeing the variety championed, with makers in McLaren Vale arguably turning out the most compelling examples.

Grenache blanc

As its name suggests, grenache blanc is a colour mutation of grenache – the raspberry-scented red variety from Spain that is more famous in its Southern French guise. As with the dark-skinned original, grenache blanc likely originated in Spain, with the colour mutation probably occurring in the Terra Alta region of Catalunya, not far from Barcelona. While there isn’t much grenache blanc currently in the ground in Australia, it’s a variety that has attracted some attention as a climate-apt variety for warmer regions, particularly in South Australia, given its natural tolerance to both drought and heat. It produces rich, unctuous white wines that, while not overly high in acid, can age well if carefully made.

Home > Wines We Love > 2024 Thistledown ‘Walking With Kings’ Roussanne / Grenache Blanc

What happens when you treat two ‘alternative’ varieties with the same amount of reverence other makers would reserve for the noble chardonnay? If you’re Thistledown’s Giles Cooke, you get a serious – and seriously delicious – textural white.

Producer
Thistledown
Region

McLaren Vale
RRP

$60
Vintage

2024
Variety/Varieties

Grenache blanc Roussanne
Alc./Vol.

13%

Australian wine drinkers are an adventurous bunch – thanks to the pioneering work of figures such as Max Allen, the Chalmers family, and the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show, we’re very happy to try emerging ‘alternative’ varieties. (This is a very good thing, too, as these varieties are likely be far better suited to many Australian wine-growing regions than the more familiar chardonnay, pinot noir, shiraz, et cetera.) Indeed, some of the ‘alternative’ varieties of yesteryear, such as pinot gris/grigio, are now mainstays in Australia – while relative newcomers fiano and tempranillo look set to storm the mainstream shortly. But one barrier persists – price. As a general rule, Australian wine drinkers aren’t willing to pay serious money for wines made from these varieties, instead preferring to hew to tried-and-true mainstream (or ‘noble’) varieties when looking for a statement bottle. Enter ‘Walking With Kings’, a blend of handpicked roussanne and grenache blanc from two separate McLaren Vale vineyards, each of which have been given the kind of luxe winemaking treatment normally reserved for chardonnay. It’s not a cheap wine, but neither is it expensive, given the effort involved and quality produced – instead, it’s the kind of wine that can quietly reframe our expectations for ‘alternative’ varieties, and prove them every bit as ‘noble’ as their better-known counterparts.

Tasting Note

An intriguing nose – initially somewhat closed, but as it comes up in temperature and sees some oxygen it becomes redolent of lemon zest, almond meal, candied orange rind, orange blossom, honeysuckle, and tinned peaches and pears in their syrup. Fresh and lithe on the palate, brightened by zesty acidity, despite a syrupy texture that plays nicely with the tinned-fruit aromatic notes and a slightly waxy feel on the finish. The flavours on the palate skew a little more savoury than the nose would suggest, with some Parmesan rind–like lees influence showing in the middle palate and a sprinkling of sea salt–like minerality on the finish. It’s a wine of intriguing contrasts – rich yet light, fruity yet savoury, bright but not overtly acid-driven. Most importantly, it’s a wine that deftly straddles the line between ‘eminently drinkable’ and ‘thought-provoking’.

Themes of this wine

McLaren Vale

While it couldn’t feel any more removed from city life, the McLaren Vale wine region is actually inside Adelaide’s metropolitan area. And although the township itself is only forty minutes by car from central Adelaide and vineyards brush up against ever-encroaching housing, McLaren Vale remains unaffected by the urban sprawl. With deeply etched history, the Vale has a slow-paced sense of calm and an extraordinary wealth of untrammelled beauty. It is home to some of this country’s most beautifully pristine beaches, as well as some of the world’s most forward-thinking grape-growers and winemakers. And with over eighty cellar doors, it is an essential destination for wine lovers – and anyone else, for that matter.

Roussanne

A white variety grown primarily in France’s Rhône Valley, roussanne partners with marsanne in the north for Crozes-Hermitage, Hermitage and Saint-Joseph, while it slips into Southern Rhône blends in lower concentrations, with grenache blanc taking more of a lead. Australia has very little of the variety planted, but the small amount that is grown has shown to make compelling wine, either as a varietal wine or blended with its familiar foils, marsanne and viognier.

Grenache blanc

As its name suggests, grenache blanc is a colour mutation of grenache – the raspberry-scented red variety from Spain that is more famous in its Southern French guise. As with the dark-skinned original, grenache blanc likely originated in Spain, with the colour mutation probably occurring in the Terra Alta region of Catalunya, not far from Barcelona. While there isn’t much grenache blanc currently in the ground in Australia, it’s a variety that has attracted some attention as a climate-apt variety for warmer regions, particularly in South Australia, given its natural tolerance to both drought and heat. It produces rich, unctuous white wines that, while not overly high in acid, can age well if carefully made.

Home > Wines We Love > 2024 Ricca Terra ‘Una Vita’ Grenache Blanc

How’s this for a bold statement? ‘Una Vita’ takes Ricca Terra’s dedication to the much-derided Riverland to the next level, with a fine-wine level of viticultural and winemaking detail – and a matching price point. And it delivers… Beeswaxy aromatics mingle with flavours of lemon barley, bread and butter.

Producer
Ricca Terra
Region

Riverland
RRP

$100
Vintage

2024
Variety/Varieties

Grenache blanc
Alc./Vol.

12.2%

Ricca Terra have long been champions of the Riverland region – seen by many in Australia’s wine industry as an area capable only of pumping out huge quantities of watery, flavourless grapes destined for bulk-wine production. Ashley Ratcliffe’s ambition with Ricca Terra has always been to change perceptions of this region by encouraging sustainable viticulture, embracing climate-apt alternative grape varieties, and using whip-smart winemaking to showcase what the region can be capable of when approached differently.

Ashley’s new ‘Una Vita’ range is the pinnacle of this project – two serious statement wines, one an outré red blend and this exceptional white drawn from the Rudi Vineyard that retails at $100 and shows what the region can do when lavished with the kind of attention required to make fine wine elsewhere.

Tasting note

Patience, meet rewards … Serve this too fresh from the fridge and you’ll do both the wine and yourself an avoidable disservice. Dare we suggest you pour, then briefly pause and let temperature and some gentle oxygenation work their magic – because grenache blanc likes time and space to unfurl.

Once unfurled, this wine opens with warm, beeswaxy aromatics mingled with chamomile and a faint petroleum twang. The palate is tinged by boiled lolly confection – think childhood lemon barley – spliced with salty preserved lemon. Texture and breadth come to the fore here, checked by a twang of fine, integrated acidity lending line and length. There’s a lilt of bread and butter on the back end hinting at something savoury – and some ageing promise. A brilliant wine for an occasion, and a definite friend with food – get this open on the table (in a decanter, if you have one) in front of good fare and better company and let it do its thing. Rejoice in the Riverland and go with this wine’s unctuous flow – that’s the spirit.

Themes of this wine

Grenache blanc

As its name suggests, grenache blanc is a colour mutation of grenache – the raspberry-scented red variety from Spain that is more famous in its Southern French guise. As with the dark-skinned original, grenache blanc likely originated in Spain, with the colour mutation probably occurring in the Terra Alta region of Catalunya, not far from Barcelona. While there isn’t much grenache blanc currently in the ground in Australia, it’s a variety that has attracted some attention as a climate-apt variety for warmer regions, particularly in South Australia, given its natural tolerance to both drought and heat. It produces rich, unctuous white wines that, while not overly acidic, can age well if carefully made.

Riverland

Ten years ago, five years ago – less even – South Australia’s Riverland was not a name worn proudly on the front label of a wine bottle. It was in the fine print. Obscured, somewhat irrelevant. For Australia’s largest wine region, this may seem odd, but that anonymity was – and still largely is – part of the picture. While so many of Australia’s regions are about specific attributes, specific characters, the Riverland is the everyman, a hot-climate powerhouse of volume production, a champion of affordability and reliable consistency. But there’s more to the Riverland than that, with new growers and makers working with rather than against the heat to make wine of regional character and high quality.

2025 Dune ‘Maspalomas’ Clarete McLaren Vale

Tasting Note

Themes of this wine

McLaren Vale

Grenache

Grenache blanc

Tasting Note

Themes of this wine

McLaren Vale

Roussanne

Grenache blanc

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Grenache blanc

Riverland

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