2022 Paxton Graciano

Lighter in body with distinct savoury and white pepper characters filled out with bright red fruits. Light tannins make this wine ready to drink young, although cellaring potential is in the medium term. This grape variety is Spanish, grown primarily in the Rioja region. After some research David Paxton decided to graft one row of Graciano onto some old Chardonnay vines at Thomas Block to see what the result would be. When you try this wine, we think you will agree that the variety is well suited to the conditions of McLaren Vale.

Well, you thought 2021 was good but I bet you hadn’t heard about 2022 yet! With most of the country experiencing extreme La Niña conditions, in McLaren Vale we were hit with the lucky stick and enjoyed plenty of soil moistening rain through the winter but no extreme events. Budburst was a breath of new life after a long cool Winter and conditions were ideal up to flowering where things went a bit haywire. Crazy Melbourne type weather blew a lot of the flowers away before they could turn into fruit… but less fruit, more quality and coming off a bumper 2021 vintage it helped balance things out. We had a lovely cool summer, which helped ripening happen nice and slow, just the way we like it. Vintage was well spread out with fine days through most of March allowing us to choose when to pick and preserve stunning, natural acidity.