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 > 2022 Smallfry ‘Tangerine Dream’

‘Orange’ wine with a perfect balance between savoury tension, in both flavour and feel, with citrus peel and subdued blossom flecked with warm spices and earthy notes, a prudent amount of grip adding structure.

Producer
Smallfry
Region

Barossa Valley
RRP

$36
Vintage

2022
Variety/Varieties

Muscat Pedro Ximénez Riesling Roussanne Semillon
Alc./Vol.

12%

This is our favourite vintage for Smallfry’s orange wine, with a perfect balance between savoury tension, in both flavour and feel, with citrus peel and subdued blossom flecked with warm spices and earthy notes, a prudent amount of grip adding structure.

Tasting note

A blend mainly made up of semillon and pedro ximénez, with riesling, roussanne and muscat in support, this has seen a good dose of skin contact, which is evident from the deep orangey gold colour. It’s firmly in orange/amber wine territory but it doesn’t trade in all the brightness for savouriness. Candied citrus peel, Meyer lemon, carraway and a savoury take on bitter orange marmalade all feature on the nose, with a dusting of clove and ground ginger and a sandy, earthy note. There’s grip, of course, a plum skin chew, with some fleshy pockets of fruit richness providing ballast, a hint of fennel seed closing out.

Themes of this wine

Skin Contact

The skins hold the colouring matter and lots of tannin. Leave them in contact with the juice/wine and you’ll extract those elements. Most conventional white wine sees no skin contact, rosé a little bit to get a blush, and red wine plenty to get the colour and structure. Skin-contact whites… well, they have some skin contact. Yep. More colour, more tannin and a different flavour profile.

Semillon

In league with sauvignon blanc and muscadelle, semillon is responsible for the dry whites of Bordeaux, as well as the great sweet wines of Sauternes, Barsac et al. In Australia, semillon found its own unique niche in the Hunter Valley, making low alcohol, super-bright and zippy wines that age for decades, while in Margaret River it is more often than not blended with sauvignon blanc to make the region’s signature aromatic white.

Pedro Ximénez

Pedro ximénez is a Spanish grape that is best known for a varietally labelled Sherry that is dark in colour and lusciously rich and sweet, with strong flavours of dried fig and date. The variety prospered in this country when fortified wines were the dominant species, and suffered equally after their massive decline. Today, the variety still goes to making some Sherry (called Apera here now) styles as well as dessert wines, but most has been removed from vineyards. However, there are makers now using the grape to investigate new styles based on heritage plantings, and some brave souls are even planting it.

Riesling

Riesling is one of the world’s most versatile grapes, capable of making styles from aridly dry to lusciously sweet, plus everything in between, and with a transparency that reflects where it was grown like few – if any – other grapes. Hailing from Germany, it’s equally embedded in France and Austria, while the style made famous in the Clare Valley that once defined Australian versions has now been joined by a multitude of expressions, and from right across the country.

Roussanne

Hailing from France’s Northern Rhône, roussanne is slowly making a mark in Australia, with the grape well suited to warmer climates, producing wines of texture, fruit depth and freshness, while also making compelling expressions in cool climate zones. With aromas of orchard fruits, in the pear and golden apple spectrum, roussanne also typically displays herbal aromas, though not in the grassy spectrum, more akin to alpine herbs and sage.

Muscat

An ancient group of grapes, the muscat family, which has something like 200 documented variations, all have a linking characteristic of being headily aromatic, with floral, grapey and musky notes. The opulence of the grapes makes them ideal for sweet and fortified wines, which they are predominantly used for.

Barossa

The Barossa is arguably Australia’s most revered wine region. It dwarfs many other fine wine regions for scale, while firmly maintaining a quality profile, with its distinctive style and character recognised worldwide. It is dripping in history, has far and away the largest resource of old and ancient vines in the country, and fifth- and sixth-generation growers and makers proliferate. It is fair to call it the cornerstone of Australian wine. It is the home of powerful red wines, established names making established styles, but there are also makers finding new meaning in the territory.

Biodynamic

An organic farming method created by Rudolph Steiner in the 1920s, biodynamics is a slightly mystical approach, employing elaborate organic ‘preparations’ to restore the natural balance of the soil and encourage microorganisms. It also observes the lunar cycle to prescribe actions in the vineyard and winery. Why some of it works is not clearly understood, but it is used by some of the world’s greatest producers.

Home > Wines We Love > 2019 Yangarra ‘Roux Beauté’ Roussanne

Layers of citrus, spice and orchard fruit, overlaid with chalky, savoury accents.

Producer
Yangarra
Region

McLaren Vale
RRP

$60
Vintage

2019
Variety/Varieties

Roussanne
Alc./Vol.

14.5%

Yangarra Estate’s winemaker Pete Fraser has been making this skinsy, ceramic-egg-raised Roussanne since 2013, and the latest iteration is one of the best, with layers of citrus, spice and orchard fruit, overlaid with chalky, savoury accents.

Tasting note

Fermented and aged in small ceramic eggs – half fermented as juice, the rest on skins for 193 days, with the final blend 60/40 respectively – this is a deep greenish gold in colour, with aromas of dried sage, hay, dried apple, orange pith, jasmine nectar, wax and spice, with a chalky almost volcanic mineral feel to it. The flavours are layered but they play down a fine, dry-toned and savoury line, with flexing texture pushing up against fine grip and placid but present acidity, a burr of gentle tannin leaving a lasting impression, beckoning for more, and for food.

Themes of this wine

Roussanne

Famously blended in the Northern Rhône with viognier and marsanne, roussanne also features in the white blends of the Southern Rhône. It has been present in Victorian vineyards since the 19th century, but has never been a major player. Here, it is typically blended with its Northern Rhône companions, though varietal bottlings are not unheard of. The flavours of Roussanne can tend to the herbal, but more sage-like than grassy.

McLaren Vale

While it couldn’t feel any more removed from city life, the McLaren Vale wine region is inside Adelaide’s metropolitan area. And although the township itself is only 40 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 80 cellar doors, it is an essential destination for wine lovers – and anyone else, for that matter.

Egg-shaped fermenters

Amphorae are some of the most ancient winemaking vessels, and the modern practice of using ovoid fermenters is a very similar idea, with the shape encouraging ferment vectors to swirl and tumble. While amphorae are typically made from clay, eggs come in a range of materials, from concrete to ceramic to steel.

Home > Wines We Love > 2019 Bertrand Bespoke ‘Field Blend’

A field blend leaning on Rhône white varieties, this is all barrel fermented, then raised on lees to build texture and harmonise the varieties into a seamless whole of orchard fruits, granitic minerals and nutty winemaking notes.

Producer
Bertrand Bespoke
Region

Bendigo
RRP

$30
Vintage

2019
Variety/Varieties

Marsanne Roussanne Viognier
Alc./Vol.

13%

A field blend leaning on Rhône white varieties, this is all barrel fermented, then raised on lees to build texture and harmonise the varieties into a seamless whole of orchard fruits, granitic minerals and nutty winemaking notes.

Tasting note

Any overt varietal scents are kept off centrestage here, with a subtle medley of coolly ripe apple, pear, peach and apricot, with a nutty, saline accent and savoury mineral drive. Oak’s there, but it’s not the first time the barrels have held wine, with a rounding of fruit and a gentle plushing of texture the result, rather than adding any oak flavour. This is bright, subtle and harmonious, with that salinity, granitic structure and fine acidity driving a mineral, fresh but gently savoury wine.

Themes of this wine

Bendigo

The Bendigo wine region is characterised by warm to hot days with cool nights. It extends around the city of Bendigo to Bridgewater on Loddon, Marong and Mandurang, and to Harcourt, which is at the base of Mount Alexander, and was famously an orchard area, best known for growing apples. As a wine region, it is best known for flavoursome red wines, principally cabernet sauvignon and shiraz, which account for nearly 70 per cent of the total plantings.

Marsanne

A grape most commonly associated with the Northern Rhône, though it features in the south, marsanne has also carved a small be significant niche in Australian wine folklore. With vines planted in 1927, Victoria’s Tahbilk lays claim to some of the oldest, if not the oldest, marsanne vines in the world. And the wines have proved to age incredibly well, as they can in the Rhône. Flavours can range through pear, apple and citrus, with nutty and toasty development over time, as well as a varietally distinctive honeysuckle character.

Roussanne

Famously blended in the Northern Rhône with viognier and marsanne, roussanne also features in the white blends of the Southern Rhône. It has been present in Victorian vineyards since the 19th century, but has never been a major player. Here, it is typically blended with its Northern Rhône companions, though varietal bottlings are not unheard of. The flavours of Roussanne can tend to the herbal, but more sage-like than grassy.

Viognier

Viognier is perhaps as well known for red wines as it is white, even though it rarely occupies more than 5 per cent of a blend with shiraz. The opulently apricot-scented grape was most vocally championed by Yalumba in the 1990s, with there now near to 800 hectares planted across the country. A highly aromatic grape, viognier is very distinctly scented with apricot, which can vary from the flesh, to the kernel, to apricot blossom, and those characters can be extremely exotic when quite ripe. It is also a grape that is quite phenolic but with low acidity. So, ripe examples will tend to be luscious and rich with high alcohol. Picked earlier and the apricot notes are more delicate, with acidity more of a feature.

Sauvignon blanc

When you think of sauvignon blanc, it’s hard not to think of New Zealand almost immediately, and the pungently expressive examples from Marlborough. But sauvignon also contributes to some of France’s most noble wines, as well as a huge diversity of expressions in Australia, both bottles solo and in blends. One of the most aromatic of grapes, sauvignon blanc is not shy for flavour and typically is quite high in acid. On the leaner end, those flavours will be very grassy and herbal and advance through passionfruit to some quite opulent tropical characters, like guava, as the fruit gets riper.

Home > Wines We Love > 2019 Giaconda ‘Amphora’ Roussanne

A ‘naturally’ styled skin-contact white from a Beechworth master better known for classic styles.

Producer
Giaconda
Region

Beechworth
RRP

$85
Vintage

2019
Variety/Varieties

Roussanne
Alc./Vol.

13.5%

A ‘naturally’ styled skin-contact white from a Beechworth master better known for classic styles.

Tasting note

This is savoury but quite full and fruit forward, with cooked apple, candied citrus peel, persimmon and a hint of ginger on the nose and palate. There’s ample richness in the mouth, with full viscous texture, but it all plays in a savoury space, with gentle acidity paired with skinsy tannin adding to the direction. This is pitched in a ‘natural’ wine vein, but it’s got a pretty classic feel for a skinsy white, fairly clean and bright, but with all the texture, grip and flavour complexity you’d expect from the category, just minus most of the funk.

Themes of this wine

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.

Beechworth

There’s something stately about the Beechworth wine region, with a sense of history, a sense of establishment that belies its relatively new viticultural status and frugal output. Perhaps it’s the town, with the pomp of its sandy hued stone buildings, the whole Gold Rush spectacle of it. Perhaps it’s the imprint of iconic makers, like Giaconda, Sorrenberg and Castagna. Perhaps it’s a combination. But whatever it is, don’t take this to mean Beechworth is set in its ways. It is a region of extraordinary untapped potential, with the ranks of newer makers swelling and testing the limits.

Amphora

An amphora is a big, classically shaped clay pot used for fermenting and maturing wine. They, unsurprisingly, go way back, and are still extensively used in Georgia (the world’s oldest winemaking country… truly), where they are called qvevri. They’re also used by lots of natural winemakers, as well as plenty that don’t put themselves in that camp. Why use them? Well, you get interesting ferment vectors, which swirl the lees around, and they are very neutral in terms of flavour imparted. They’re also a protective environment, being less oxidative than oak barrels, but don’t have some of the issues associated with the complete absence of oxygen in stainless steel tanks.

Skin contact

The skins hold the colouring matter and lots of tannin. Leave them in contact with the juice/wine and you’ll extract those elements. Most conventional white wine sees no skin contact, rosé a little bit to get a blush, and red wine plenty to get the colour and structure. Skin-contact whites… well, they have some skin contact. Yep. More colour, more tannin and a different flavour profile.

2024 Thistledown ‘Walking With Kings’ Roussanne / Grenache Blanc McLaren Vale

Tasting Note

Themes of this wine

McLaren Vale

Roussanne

Grenache blanc

This is our favourite vintage for Smallfry’s orange wine, with a perfect balance between savoury tension, in both flavour and feel, with citrus peel and subdued blossom flecked with warm spices and earthy notes, a prudent amount of grip adding structure.

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Skin Contact

Semillon

Pedro Ximénez

Riesling

Roussanne

Muscat

Barossa

Biodynamic

Yangarra Estate’s winemaker Pete Fraser has been making this skinsy, ceramic-egg-raised Roussanne since 2013, and the latest iteration is one of the best, with layers of citrus, spice and orchard fruit, overlaid with chalky, savoury accents.

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Roussanne

McLaren Vale

Egg-shaped fermenters

A field blend leaning on Rhône white varieties, this is all barrel fermented, then raised on lees to build texture and harmonise the varieties into a seamless whole of orchard fruits, granitic minerals and nutty winemaking notes.

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Bendigo

Marsanne

Roussanne

Viognier

Sauvignon blanc

A ‘naturally’ styled skin-contact white from a Beechworth master better known for classic styles.

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Roussanne

Beechworth

Amphora

Skin contact

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