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Description
- 2024 Vanguardist V Grenache
- 2024 Vanguardist V Mourvedre
- 2024 Vanguardist V Syrah
- 2025 Vanguardist V Cinsault
2024 Vanguardist V Grenache
Vanguardist is at the forefront of the new-wave Grenache movement in McLaren Vale. Michael Corbett has spent the last decade focused on a single site - the Rende vineyard in Blewitt Springs - and his 'V' Grenache is now rightfully considered a benchmark for the region. This isn't your typical jammy Vale red; it’s about precision, detail, and showing off the distinct sandy terroir of Blewitt Springs.
The 2024 vintage marks the tenth release of this wine. It was a season of extremes, starting with a wet spring before a February heatwave tightened the harvest window. Corbett hand-picked the 55-year-old bush vines in three stages to maintain balance. Two-thirds of the fruit was fermented as whole bunches for five weeks, then tucked away for 17 months in large 2200L Slavonian oak foudres. That extra time in old wood through a second winter is what gives the wine its seamless cohesion.
It’s an elegant, highly aromatic Grenache, leading with lifted red berries, wild herbs, and a distinctive mineral edge. The palate is vibrant and deep, framed by fine-grained, silky tannins and a bright acidity that keeps everything focused. It has classic "Blewitt Springs" lacy texture but with serious underlying power. It’s drinking beautifully now but has the structure to evolve over the next decade.
97+ points
"The Vanguardist calling card, the defining wine. Deeply savoury and intense, layered, detailed, chiselled, seriously complex... It’s a wine that is so captivating on the nose… Another beautifully beguiling world-class grenache from Mr Corbett. Bravo."
- Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)
96 points
"Wonderful finesse and perfume here. Give it a couple more years to come up."
- Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)
2024 Vanguardist V Mourvedre
Vanguardist is one of just a handful of Australian producers championing Mourvèdre as a varietal wine. Michael Corbett is a staunch advocate for the variety, and this single-site expression from Blewitt Springs is a clear example of why. It’s grown just a stone's throw from his benchmark Grenache site, on the same sandy soils that define this pocket of the Vale.
The 2024 vintage captures that classic "wild" Mourvèdre personality. After a dry, warm run home into harvest, the fruit was hand-picked and fermented with about a third whole bunches. It spent 18 months in old French puncheons, including a second winter in oak, which has helped round out the variety's naturally boisterous tannins. It’s got the rare balance of being a "big" savoury wine that still feels light on its feet.
It’s a very Rhone-adjacent style, loaded with blackberry, blueberry, and those signature gamey, wild herb notes. The mouthfeel is sinewy and chewy, with a distinct blood-orange acidity and a salty, mineral finish that pulls everything together. It’s a serious, complex red that’s built for the cellar, but it’s so well-knit that it’s hard to resist right now.
96+ points
"Umami notes, kombu and roasted nori. Bountiful, detailed, fine and unmistakably natural tannins complete an exceptional package."
- Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)
95 points
"Plum, spices, floral notes, an earthy new leather guttural thing lends great appeal, black pepper, almond paste, some green herb, but such perfume!.. Very good. Mataro fanciers will be well pleased."
- Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)
2024 Vanguardist V Syrah
Michael Corbett is a wizard when it comes to flipping expectations, and this Barossa Syrah is the perfect example. While the Barossa is usually synonymous with "big" Shiraz, Michael approaches it through his signature lens of restraint and precision. Sourced from the McKenzie vineyard in Ebenezer, this comes from nine-generation farmers working sandy clay loam over solid limestone.
The 2024 season was a low-yield, high-quality affair. Windy conditions during flowering meant fewer bunches, but the fruit that remained had incredible intensity and deep colour. Michael hand-picked in mid-February (very early for the Barossa!), using about a third whole bunches and fermenting gently for a month. It then spent 15 months in two puncheons - one new and one older - giving it just enough frame without burying the fruit in oak.
When we sat down to taste this, it felt like a Barossa Shiraz made specifically for people who don't usually like Barossa Shiraz. It’s a lighter shade of the Barossa but remarkably drinkable and complex, sitting at a nimble 13.1% alcohol. It's got plenty of spice and dark fruit, but it’s the fine tannins and "rocky" mineral energy from that calcrete soil that really stand out. It’s a contemporary, sophisticated take on the region. Always full of surprises is Michael Corbett.
96 points
"This sits no more than medium in weight, sketched in charcoal and pencil rather than splashed with colour. There’s fruit intensity, concentration, but like other wines of the stable, spice and savouriness and structure are the guiding principles... Tannins, as always, are detailed, carefully extracted, compellingly instructive, leading to the table."
- Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)
95+ points
"Some orange peel and floral mouth-perfume, finish has a boysenberry crispness, sappiness and excellent length. Engaging wine. Different. There’s so many layers to it. Give it some time, I’d say, though there’s no shortage of interest now."
- Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)
2025 Vanguardist V Cinsault
Extremely limited - Only available in the Vangaurdist pack.
Vanguardist’s obsession with Rhône varieties has finally led Michael Corbett to Cinsault. After a one-off collab with Brash Higgins in 2023, Michael decided to make it a permanent fixture in the lineup. Sourced from the Lennon vineyard, these vines sit on heavy mottled clays near the ocean - soils that tend to give this usually "light" grape a bit more depth and density than you'd expect.
The 2025 season was the driest in over twenty years, resulting in a wine with serious intensity and a low 12.1% alcohol. Michael spent years working with this variety in the south of France, and that experience shows in the cellar. He used a third whole bunches and a long, six-week gentle ferment before ageing the wine in large 600L demi-muids.
When we tasted this with Michael, we were struck by how much character he's squeezed out of a relatively young vineyard. It’s got that signature Cinsault perfume - bright red berries and florals - but it’s backed by a savoury, earthy richness from those clay soils. It’s light-footed and incredibly fresh, but it has a "serious" edge that sets it apart from more simple, smashable versions.
95 points
"Strawberry and raspberry with a kiss of sweetness, plenty of exotic spice, souk-y even, peanut shells, almond, lively perfume... So delicious. Such joy. Brings a huge smile to the face. I’m all about this style of wine."
- Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)
95 points
"This is another new wine in the V range... It’s diaphanous, a veil of dried fruit and spice, dry toned yet lissom, and very good. Australian cinsault is having something of a moment, and this is one of the finest examples."
- Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)
| Country | Australia |
| Australian State | SA |
| Feature |
High Score |
| Size | 7 |
Vanguardist
Winemaker Michael Corbett Vanguardist
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