Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate
“Steve Pannell has been fundamentally instrumental in the success of McLaren Vale Grenache. This comment is not to take away from the early pioneers who, in many respects, put the variety and the region "on the map," but his work in defining the direction of the modern-day McLaren Vale Grenache style has been foundational. During this tasting at his winery in McLaren Vale, we looked at all of his Grenache wines—from rosé to premium table wine offerings—and discussed all manner of things pertaining to the variety. This included viticulture, soils, vineyards and winemaking—style also entered the chat. The major takeaway from this discussion for me was the clarity around his focus on tannins. The tannin presence in the Pannell Grenaches is one of the main reasons why I value them so highly; the wines are fragrant, fresh and detailed, yet they are also wines of structure and shape and age gracefully. In this tasting, I looked at his "as yet unreleased" Sunrise Grenache from a "new" vineyard acquisition, farmed by Pannell. Perhaps this vineyard is what he has been waiting for all this time, or perhaps the confluence of season and site matched up as the stars did, who knows. What we do know is that the impact that the success of these wines are having, not just from Pannell but from others here too, is creating ripples that will turn to waves and more.”
Single Vineyard Grenache Releases
2023 ‘Old McDonald’ Grenache
Stephen’s interest in Grenache stretches back to the mid-nineties. Upon arriving in McLaren Vale, a preference for making medium bodied wine led Stephen to Grenache and the love affair began. Given the region’s warm Mediterranean-climate and proximity to the ocean, Grenache is ideally suited to McLaren Vale and perfectly at home with our food and lifestyle.
Stephen proudly states, whenever given the opportunity, that McLaren Vale Grenache ages more gracefully than Shiraz. Grenache is well on its way to becoming McLaren Vale’s most recognised wine and our true wine of place.
The Vintage
The third year of the current LaNina cycle was cool and wet leading to the most challenging growing season in living memory. High winter rainfall continued through spring delaying budburst and shoot growth. Unusually high soil moisture made spraying and mid row management a challenge. Thankfully, a dry mild summer followed, but the die was cast, and harvest was one of the latest on record. Low crops with long hang times are not common however these contradictory conditions did result in elegance and great flavour. A year that relied on attention to detail in the vineyard to make great wine.
Winemaking
Variety
Grenache Noir/ Garnacha Tinta / Ganaxa / Cannonau – whatever the name its all the same to us!
Varietal Origin
Sardinia or Spain; an ancient variety with origins that are hotly contested.
Vineyard
Plaisted's vineyard, McLaren Vale. 81 year old 'bush on a wire', dry grown on 50 million year old soils comprised of Maslin Beach sand at an altitude of 80m above sea level. Farmed by Matt Hatwell.
Process
Hand harvested on the 3rd of March and delicately crushed. Fermented in one stainless steel open-top fermenter with regular pump overs, 12% whole bunch. Left on skins for 15 days before a gentle press. Settled in tank for 13 days before transfer to an old French oak vat for malolactic fermentation and extended maturation. Racked twice and bottled without fining, additions, or adjustment on the 27th of May 2024.
Alcohol: 14.0%
Ph: 3.45
TA: 5.4
Total Sulphur: 64ppm
For the Senses
Flavour Profile
The classic version of McLaren Vale Grenache - Romantic, old-world charm with a core of sweet fruit. Roses, lovage, woody herbs, leaf matter, cranberry and raspberry preserve. The primary aromas are red and loaded with tension: chorizo and sweet paprika again in 2023 followed by the signature blood orange, pomegranate and Turkish delight we've come to expect from this vineyard.
Structure & Texture
Like a room full of balloons ready to be squeezed: potentially loud and brash on one hand but soft and pleasant to hold in the other. The textures promote the red fuits and now it's a large room with red ballons only. There's richness here but it maintains McLaren Vale grenache's natural medium-bodied nature.
Cellaring
Many, many years of ageing potential, try 15+
Serving
Bar Lourinha Chickpea & Spinach with Chorizo. We recommend decanting one hour before serving.
Review by Marcus Ellis for Halliday Wine Companion
"From 81-year-old vines planted to deep Maslin Sands. Fermented with 12% whole bunches over two weeks, then settled in tank for a month: elevage in a 4500L Old French oak vat. This is spicy, lifted, with the depth that this site always displays, the layering of fruit, spice and mineral inflection all visible, but the old-vine intensity viewed through a cooler lens. Red fruited, with berries, cherries and pomegranate, fresh red florals, musk and blood orange, the tannins so impeccably fine and graceful, yet no less purposeful and savoury. The fruit clings to the tannins – like flesh to a cherry pit – without spilling out. It’s a beautifully poised iteration of this cuvee, and just such a delight."
97 Points
Review from James Suckling.com
"Perfumed aromas of dried strawberries, dark cherries, cinnamon bark, blueberry bush, violets and spices. The seamless palate has a creamy texture, finely tuned tannins and bright acidity in complete harmony with a long, mouthwatering finish. >From 81-year-old vines that give depth and tension to this nervy, refined grenache. Almost the purest, most refined release from Pannell’s single-vineyard range this year. Excellent."
97 Points
The Wine Advocate review by Erin Larkin
"I've made this wine, by itself, since 2004. It was hard to say goodbye. It has not been easy," says Steve Pannell. The final vintage of the Old McDonald Grenache is the 2024, so this is the second-to-last release we will see from this vineyard. Its fans will mourn its passing but will find much comfort in the arms of Little Branch. Here, the 2023 Old McDonald Grenache is lighter framed and more delicate than the powerhouse 2022 tasted alongside. 2022 was such a magnificent season, and here is my fervent advice to anyone who would like to hear it: the 2022 is a vintage to cellar, while the fragrant, lighter 2023s will bring you all the pleasure in the short to medium term. The diaphanous quality of this 2023 is one of its key attributes (alongside more enhanced freshness/perceived acidity, elevated spice top notes and levity of fruit), but those seeking plushness will be looking only at the 2022. Choose your player.”
95 Points
2023 ‘Smart Grenache’
Stephen’s interest in Grenache stretches back to the mid-nineties. Upon arriving in McLaren Vale, a preference for making medium bodied wine led Stephen to Grenache and the love affair began. Given the region’s warm Mediterranean-climate and proximity to the ocean, Grenache is ideally suited to McLaren Vale and perfectly at home with our food and lifestyle.
Stephen proudly states, whenever given the opportunity, that McLaren Vale Grenache ages more gracefully than Shiraz. Grenache is well on its way to becoming McLaren Vale’s most recognised wine and our true wine of place.
The Vintage
The third year of the current LaNina cycle was cool and wet leading to the most challenging growing season in living memory. High winter rainfall continued through spring delaying budburst and shoot growth. Unusually high soil moisture made spraying and mid row management a challenge. Thankfully, a dry mild summer followed, but the die was cast, and harvest was one of the latest on record. Low crops with long hang times are not common however these contradictory conditions did result in elegance and great flavour. A year that relied on attention to detail in the vineyard to make great wine.
Winemaking
Variety
Grenache Noir/ Garnacha Tinta / Ganaxa / Cannonau – whatever the name its all the same to us!
Varietal Origin
Sardinia or Spain; an ancient variety with origins that are hotly contested.
Vineyard
Smart Vineyard, Clarendon. 68 year old unirrigated bush vines grown on 750 million year old soils comprised of laminated dark and green siltstone at 230m above sea level. Farmed by Wayne Smart.
Process
Hand harvested on the 11th of April (three weeks later than 2022) and delicately crushed. Fermented in an old French oak fermenter with daily pump overs. Left on skins for 9 days before a gentle press. Settled in tank for 6 days before transfer to an old French oak puncheons for malolactic fermentation and extended maturation. Racked once and bottled without fining, additions, or adjustment on the 19th of March 2024.
Alcohol: 14.0%
Ph: 3.34
TA: 6.4
Total Sulphur: 53ppm
For the Senses
Flavour Profile
Blood orange, violets, concentrated red currant, musk sticks, vermouth, chinotto – aromas that are fragile and delicate like a glass bridge that you think will shatter but somehow it's stable and strong. The aromatics always leave the strongest impresion and precede a palate of bergamot and pink fruits like lillypilly and cranberry.
Structure & Texture
Tetrahedrons joined accross the palate to tickle all corners. The texture appears to be delicate and breakable but is actually strong and supportive. The flavours slide accross the palate and carry the aromatics. Singular, medium bodied and contradictory.
Cellaring
Give it 10 in a cool dark cellar.
Serving
Try with Shane Delia's lamb shoulder tagine. We recommend decanting one hour before service.
Review by Marcus Ellis for Halliday Wine Companion
"From 68-year-old vines in Clarendon, with the wine dedicated to the man who planted and farmed them, the much loved and missed Bernard Smart. The Smart wine is always elegant, and that follows here, though it has plenty of stuffing considering it was a very cool season. Perhaps, I overuse the word savoury, but here we are again. It’s true across the impeccable single-site trio. This needs air, which sees an unfurling of exotic spices, rosewater, musk and dried orange peel notes, more moody than heady, the fruit flavour red but tartly black fruited, with some sour black cherry notes, along with black tea and bergamot, even a scent of star anise. The tannins incisive, resolute but not demanding; the wine, another triumph."
97 Points
Review from James Suckling.com
"Vibrant and perfumed, with aromas of wild blackberries, dark cherries, dried strawberries, cassia bark and citrus peel. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins and a generous texture. Flavors of boysenberries, rose petals, brambleberries and spices in the finish. Refined, pure and polished, coming from dry-grown, 68-year-old bush vines."
96 Points
The Wine Advocate review by Erin Larkin
“…The color in the glass, when poured side by side with the 2022, is far darker. The seasons were very different, and the 2023 here smells as if it's been turbocharged. It is supple, svelte, concentrated and almost plush. The palate shows the same. This is incredibly silky and seamless, with notes of sweet pouch tobacco, pomegranate molasses, raspberry/rhubarb and paprika dolce tannins. The texture here is like Dutch cocoa—super fine and gritty without being gravelly or blunt. This is super. “
97 Points
2023 ‘Little Branch Grenache’
Stephen's interest in Grenache stretches back to the mid-nineties. Upon arriving in McLaren Vale, a preference for making medium bodied wine led Stephen to Grenache and the love affair began. Given the region's warm Mediterranean-climate and proximity to the ocean Grenache is ideally suited to McLaren Vale and perfectly at home with our food and lifestyle.
Stephen proudly states, whenever given the opportunity, that McLaren Vale Grenache ages more gracefully than Shiraz. Grenache is well on its way to becoming McLaren Vale's most recognised wine and our true wine of place.
The Vintage
The third year of the current LaNina cycle was cool and wet leading to the most challenging growing season in living memory. High winter rainfall continued through spring delaying budburst and shoot growth. Unusually high soil moisture made spraying and mid row management a challenge. Thankfully, a dry mild summer followed, but the die was cast, and harvest was one of the latest on record. Low crops with long hang times are not common however these contradictory conditions did result in elegance and great flavour. A year that relied on attention to detail in the vineyard to make great wine.
Winemaking
Variety
Grenache Noir/ Garnacha Tinta / Ganaxa / Cannonau -whatever the name its all the same to us!
Varietal Origin
Sardinia or Spain; an ancient variety with origins that are hotly contested
Vineyard
Little Branch Vineyard, Blewitt Springs, 30-year-old unirrigated trellised vines grown on 50 million year old soils comprised of Maslin Beach Sands flecked with iron stone at 140m above sea level. Purchased by Stephen and Fiona in 2021.
Process
Hand picked on the 18th of March and immediately de-stemmed leaving whole berries with 14% left as whole bunches. Carefully fermented in stainless steel with daily pump overs. Left on skins for 10 days before gentle pressing. Settled in tank for 12 days before transfer to an old French oak vat for Malolactic fermentation and extended maturation. Racked three times and bottled without fining, on the 20th of September 2024.
Alcohol: 14.0%
pH: 3.49
TA: 5.4
Total Sulphur: 64 ppm
For the Senses
Flavour Profile
Dark red fruit signals the start of the race with dark spice soon taking the lead: Raspberry compote, maraschino cherries, pomegranate molasses, clove, cassia and liquorice with black tea suddenly in the frame followed by ancient earth, bone broth, roasted venison and a very subtle lift of menthol. Duty rose and sweet tar ebb and flow on the back palate creating a moment of contemplation before the next sip.
Structure & Texture
Calm and composed, soft and inviting, subtle and kind but then the textural landscape is revealed with hills and valleys of fine tannin shaped by pinpoint accurate tone. The layers build and flow offering tremendous length. Not a hair out of place!
Cellaring
10 +
Serving
Crispy pork bao or Mapo from a vendor in any China street near you.
Review by Marcus Ellis for Halliday Wine Companion
"The second release from the Pannell-owned site in Blewitt Springs, planted to Maslin Sands peppered with ironstone. Fermented in steel with 14% whole bunches; raised in an old 2800L French oak vat. Steve Pannell loves grenache, of course. Also, Nebbiolo. The kinship of those varieties in the current zeitgeist is hard to deny. Here it is writ large. Definitely grenache though, with a flex of fruit succulence through the middle (seemingly a feature of this site, based on the early evidence). Such transparency allied with depth, the tannins expansive, authoritative, sandy, refined, natural. Pressed rose, dried cranberry, sour cherry, umeboshi, warm terracotta, mace, freshly ground cinnamon, a hint of musk, the explosive perfume on the palate utterly compelling, the finish relentless. Stunning."
97 Points
Review from James Suckling.com
"So pure and refined with aromas of wild raspberries, dried strawberries, cinnamon bark, pencil shavings and dried herbs. The palate is vibrant with crunchy tannins, focused acidity and a high-tension mouthfeel, showing dark cherries, hibiscus, kirsch and citrus peel. A serious yet bright and highly drinkable grenache that is built to last."
96 Points
The Wine Front review by Gary Walsh
Posted on 3 September 2025
"Blewitt Springs. 30+ year old vines. I liked the inaugural 2022 vintage, though I like this better again.
Raspberry, with just a couple of frogs in the mix lending a welcoming touch of sweetness, lavish spice and perfume gives it something of an exotic character. It’s bright, tannin is lightly dusty offering a pumice stone grip, there’s some blood orange and cranberry freshness, almond, subtle dried herb and some earthiness, with a juicy but fine finish of excellent length and precision. Top shelf. It’s 95+ or 96, though I reckon I’ll go with the latter because of its perfume and lacy charm."
96 Points
The Wine Advocate review by Erin Larkin
“The 2023 Little Branch Grenache is floral and ultra fine—the tannins sit through the middle and the back of the fruit and drag out through the fine finish. The fruit leads with Boscobel rose, green tea, petrichor and wet asphalt (although they may in fact draw from the same thing, they feel necessary to outline individually). I tasted this 2023 alongside the 2022, and the two have clear identities and are different, yet they are cut from the same cloth. The 2022 is silkier and more supple, with great depth and complexity; the 2023 is lacier, more diaphanous and very perfumed, and both are very long. The vineyard DNA is clear, while the vintage conditions have extracted different characters. They are both excellent wines. They are collectible in the extreme, but magnificent to drink today.”
97 Points
2022 ‘Sunrise 99’ Grenache
Stephen’s interest in Grenache stretches back to the mid-nineties. Upon arriving in McLaren Vale, a preference for making medium bodied wine led Stephen to Grenache and the love affair began. Given the region’s warm Mediterranean climate and proximity to the ocean Grenache is ideally suited to McLaren Vale and perfectly at home with our food and lifestyle.
In 2021 the oportunity to purchase a nine hectare Grenache vineyard planted in 1922 in the heart of Blewitt Springs including two bush vine blocks one facing the morning sun and the other warmed by the setting sun, was too good to pass up. Finally, Stephen had a home for S.C.Pannell Grenache .
The Vintage
The second year of the current La Nina cycle saw a wild, wet winter and spring followed by a mild summer and a dry autumn leading to veraison being two weeks behind normal. Poor flowering due to wild spring weather including high winds, frost and hail led to lower than desired yields. However, a long, slow ripening period allowed tannins to fully mature making this vintage one to watch.
Winemaking
Vineyard
Block 5, Little Branch Vineyard, Blewitt Springs, 103-year-old bush vines grown on typicall Blewitt Springs sand at 140m above sea level facing East. Unirigated, managed organically, pruned and harvested by hand.
Process
The 99th vintage for the Sunrise block started with harvest on the 14th of March. Whole berries were gently shaken from the rachis and sent to a stainless steel fermenter for twice daily pumpovers. Gently pressed on the 29th of March and settled in tank for seven weeks before racking off gross lees and dispatch to a ten year old French oak vat for malolactic fermentation and maturation. Racked once and bottled on the 1st of August 2023 without fining or filtration.
Alcohol 14.5%
Ph 3.33
TA 6.5
Total Sulphur: 61 ppm
For the Senses
All to say and nothing at all. The greatest of all red table wines that Stephen has tried defy easy description. They are powerful yet restrained, elegant whilst commanding attention are medium bodied with tension and tannin. They have purity and clarity and speak of the season and the soil. No one character dominates; the flavours are layered and unfurl slowly.
You might find raspberry, cherry, Luxardo, cumin, citrus, grilled nuts, apricots on the tree, coffee, Turkish delight, spring flowers, sea spray and the purity of a mountain stream.
Cellaring
Patience will be rewarded. Give it twenty years in a cool cellar.
Serving
Please decant well before service. Try with Peking duck.
The Wine Front review by Gary Walsh
Posted on 3 September 2025
"Block 5, Little Branch Vineyard, Blewitt Springs, 103-year-old bush vines, with 2022 being the 99th vintage. It’s likely a daft thing to say, but if the 2023 Little Branch leans into Barbaresco, this has a touch of Serralunga (Barolo) about it. My frame of reference is likely a little different to some, admittedly.
Raspberry rope, cherry pie, lots of dusty exotic spice, rosewater and musk, an earthy coffee ground bass note. It’s medium to full-bodied, lavish earthy and stony tannin, ginger and dried spice, almonds, a juicy orange character in flavour and acidity, then grainy and gently sappy on a finish that’s bold and long, though not without succulence of red fruits and so much energy. It’s superb."
97 Points
The Wine Advocate review by Erin Larkin
“…The wine here is silky and seamless, packed with tannin, flavor and perfume. "I didn't make it any differently [than the other Grenaches]; I've just let the vineyard sing," he said. And sing, it does. This is a wholly complex, complete and persistently long wine. There are notes of Boscobel rose, sweet licorice, graphite, ironstone and tobacco. What a wine. In terms of character, this combines the texture and complexity of the Smart vineyard and the ethereal spice and delicacy of the Little Branch and then raises the bar of both to a whole new level. The release of this Sunrise Grenache marks the arrival of an "of-leash Pannell"; he has been tirelessly championing premium Grenache from McLaren Vale for years in his own oeuvre of structure, shape, tannin and freshness. The acquisition of this vineyard site has given him all the permission he needed, it seems. In many ways, it feels as if all of the Grenache that Pannell has made over the decades has been leading up to this point. It was worth the wait. And there are great things to come in future releases too.”
100 Points
Suckling.com review
“Bold and deeply brooding aromas of blackberries, dark cherries, plums, blackcurrants, rose petals and pencil shavings. The palate is medium-bodied with firm yet refined tannins, bright acidity and a high-tension mouthfeel. There is a lovely savory edge to this wine, finishing with a plush, rounded texture.”
96 Points
(Image: Stephen Pannell - S.C. Pannell / www.pannell.com.au)