SOLD OUT

Reviews for 2024:

WINE OF THE YEAR, RED WINE OF THE YEAR, GRENACHE OF THE YEAR, TOP 100 WINES OF THE YEAR - 99 points – Halliday Wine Companion
'From the Smart vineyard – a Grand Cru of the Vale – with the great Bernard Smart (vale) immortalised on the front label. Fermented as whole bunches in a concrete pyramid, then matured in hogsheads, with 20% new oak. Such a delightfully pale-hued, fragrantly savoury and finely structured suite this year. A red aperitivo thread builds through the sour cherry, tart redcurrant, pomegranate and dried cranberry notes, with bitter orange, coriander seed, cardamom, white pepper, cinchona bark, cinnamon and bitter alpine herbs. There’s such engaging transparency to this, such serene refinement, such poise. It’s a wine of incredible depth and weightlessness, suspended over a tannic net of such intricacy. It's as good an iteration as I can recall tasting on release. A great wine.'

97 points – Wine Advocate
'The 2024 The Charming Man Single Vineyard Grenache hails from Clarendon, on Brooks Road. The "Charming Man" is, of course, Bernard Smart, who sadly passed away in October 2023; his son, Wayne, continues the legacy there. The wine opens with blood orange, fresh lavender, crushed rose petals and frisky acidity. This is ferrous and bloody, layered with dried citrus and north African spices, which are no doubt driven from the iron-rich clays with siltstone and quartz of Clarendon. It is penetrating and intense, spicy and quite firm in its tannin profile, yet it is pliable, agile and exciting.Despite the fine acid, there is no acid adjustment here. The oldest part of the vineyard is 102 years old, while the youngest part is 53 years old. The "young" vines have a higher fruiting zone, approximately six inches higher up than the oldest parts of the vineyard, meaning that it can be picked up to 10 days earlier. This "young" pocket has lower pH and higher total acidity, earlier flavor development and, hence, no added acidity. It's a superb wine, one that will evolve in the glass over the evening. Here's hoping it lasts that long.'

97points – The Real Review
97 points – The Australian 
96+ points The Wine Front
96 points – Campbell Mattinson
94 points JamesSuckling