Description
- 2025 Aphelion Wait Vineyard Grenache
- 2025 Aphelion Hickinbotham Vineyard Grenache
- 2025 Aphelion Plaisted's Vineyard Grenache Noir
- 2025 Aphelion Brini Vineyard Grenache
2025 Aphelion Wait Vineyard Grenache
The Wait Vineyard has always been the most structural of Rob Mack's trio of single-vineyard Grenaches, and the 2025 is an absolute ripper.
The fruit comes from the Top Bush block on the Wait family's vineyard in the northeast corner of Blewitt Springs. These are dry-grown bush vines planted back in the mid-1940s, giving small berries with intense flavour and plenty of tannin.
Rob keeps the winemaking hands-off, as always. The fruit is hand-picked and fermented 100% whole bunch, slow and cool, then rests on full lees in large neutral French oak. There's no oak polish here, just turned earth, dark cherry and briary, brooding fruit with that slightly saline edge the site is known for. The tannins come in waves and carry the savoury flavours a long way.
It'll keep evolving through to 2034 if you can keep your hands off it, or give it a good decant if opening now.
97 points
"There’s a generosity to this, not plush as such, but just enveloping, with the transparency and refined detail of the house. Tannins pithy, grippy, moreish; acidity energising. As the name says: Wait (or decant). This is excellent."
- Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)
96 points
"It’s both seriously firm and ridiculously good... This is as good as you’ll find. Wine of the Year contender."
- Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)
2025 Aphelion Hickinbotham Vineyard Grenache
This is the highest and coolest of Rob Mack's single-vineyard Grenaches, coming from the iconic Hickinbotham Vineyard.
The south-facing slope here keeps the hot afternoon sun off the vines, so this is usually the last Grenache Aphelion picks. That long hang time builds plenty of flavour while keeping the freshness and drive that set it apart from the riper, darker Grenache you often see in the Vale.
The fruit was all hand-picked, fermented with 100% whole bunches, slow and cool, then left on full lees in large, neutral French oak until bottling in February 2026. There's no heavy oak and no tricks. You get lifted cranberry, bramble and cherry on the nose, then rosehip, just-ripe strawberry and blood orange with lots of herbal, briary character. It's medium-bodied, with crisp acid and a rasp of savoury tannin that carries it long.
This is a structural Grenache that will certainly age, but if you're opening it now, give it a good decant. A serious, sensational Grenache.
96 points
"Immediately savoury, straight up on the nose, then decidedly so through the palate, with grippy, pithy, pleasingly rugged natural tannins guiding."
- Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)
96 points
"This tastes like a wine from a cool site. It's as much about structure as anything, though in flavours terms it's not lacking... It's quite exquisite, really."
- Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)
2025 Aphelion Plaisted's Vineyard Grenache Noir
A brand new single vineyard Grenache from Aphelion, and it's a serious one.
The fruit comes from the middle section of Plaisted's vineyard, owned by the Hatwell family in the Blewitt Sands corner of lower Blewitt Springs, McLaren Vale. The vines went in back in 1947 on deep sandy soil, and they give tiny, thick-skinned berries with plenty of colour and structure. Only 100 dozen were made.
The 2025 was hand-picked and fermented as 100% whole bunches, slow and cool, then pressed to large neutral French oak, where it sat on full lees until bottling. It's arguably the most concentrated wine in the Aphelion single vineyard range: dark fruit, savoury edges, prominent tannin and serious drive. Think blueberry, dried black cherry and violets with sweet spice, herbs and a firm, long finish.
A serious, brooding, tense Grenache and a brilliant new addition to the ever-evolving Aphelion range.
96 points
"Magnificent grenache. So perfumed, so sure, so firm and yet so well extended... It's an epic release from Aphelion."
- Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)
94+ points
"There are some firmer edges here, a savouriness, a drier-toned quality, with notes of camphor and balsam across sour plum, dried black cherry and amaro herbs."
- Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)
2025 Aphelion Brini Vineyard Grenache
Rob Mack has made the Brini Vineyard a staple at Aphelion since his very first vintage, and it's still one of our favourite Grenache from the region.
It's owned by the Brini family and sits in the north-east corner of Blewitt Springs, where sandy loam soils give Grenache real intensity and a bit of a brooding edge. This 2025 comes from the upper tank block, hand-picked on 12 March, fermented 100% whole bunch, then left on full lees in big neutral French oak until bottling. Only around 1200 bottles were made.
It's the most aromatic and elegant wine in Rob's single-vineyard lineup. Expect damson and dark plum, a lift of cinnamon spice and brown sugar, then earthy, forest-floor and briar notes as it opens up. There's sweet cherry fruit on the palate, balanced by a savoury, herbal bitterness and a good firm sheet of tannin that keeps it long and structured without getting heavy.
A decant helps now if you're tucking right in, otherwise it'll happily sit in the cellar through to 2035.
96 points
"That compression, and the architecture of ripe, fine yet pithy tannin and energising acid tension, will stand this in good stead for cellaring."
- Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)
95 points
"This is steely, minerally and floral... This, as with the other wines in the range, is fabulous quality."
- Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)
Customer Reviews
| Variety | Grenache |
| Country | Australia |
| Region | McLaren Vale |
| Size | 7 |
Aphelion
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