Thistledown Fool on the Hills Grenache 2024

97 POINTS

Gabrielle Poy - The Real Review

An intense note of raspberry essence mixes with dried rose petals and subtle kelp aromas. It's almost playing cat and mouse - you think it's presented itself, and then more aromas appear: fresh leather and sour cherries. The palate is a beam of flavour, echoing the nose. A crescendo of silty tannins carries the flavours along, never interfering with graceful expression. This is glorious grenache providing off-the-charts enjoyment. It's so complete in its youth and will only gain greater complexity with age.

97 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Wine Advocate

The 2024 Fool on the Hill Grenache is from Eden Valley, and the wine is abundantly aromatic and eloquent of its place. The tiered vineyard site is up near Pewsey Vale and overlooks the Barossa from its vantage point of 500 meters above sea level. The wine is aromatically soft, textural and plump in the mouth, with rose petals and blood orange, red apples and redcurrants. With a hint of pomegranate molasses, the quartz comes through, and there's an integrated base of savory flavor that balances the exuberance of it. It's a highly attractive, gorgeous wine that speaks of the Eden in its splay of rocky tannin. It is chewy and powdery and fills the mouth with floral perfume. It fermented in concrete, which was a "layer cake of whole bunch and whole berry," says founder and winemaker Giles Cooke MW. The ferment received no pumping over, i.e., a very gentle extraction. Post ferment, it matured for 10 months in three- to five-year-old French puncheons. When I think of the three Grenache wines, I, perhaps controversially, given the others are from McLaren Vale, admire the tannin structure of this one the most. They all are magnificent wines. 97+ points.

96 POINTS

Marcus Ellis - Halliday's Wine Companion

Fermented in concrete pyramid with 20% whole bunches; 11 months in seasoned French oak. This from a new site to the brand, the Trial Hill vineyard, now owned and managed by Joel Mattschoss. This speaks the Thistledown dialect, expressly pure fruited yet intrinsically savoury, floral, elegant yet deep, finely but properly structured. There’s the usual cohort of red fruits, but it’s a little more earthy and spicy than its Vale peers. Day two is when this truly shines, becoming more fragrant with musk and souk spices. This is a wine to watch.

93 POINTS

James Suckling

A juicy, velvety and refined grenache with red cherries, dried raspberries, sliced strawberries and mild spices on the nose. Medium-bodied with velvety tannins and texture. It's juicy and caressing, with bright fruit character. A lovely peppery touch on the mid-palate brings verve and energy. A flavorful, spicy and persistent finish. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

93 POINTS

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

From the Trial Hill vineyard in the Eden Valley. Cherry, blackcurrant, sage, spice, white pepper and dusty things It’s juicy and full of blackberry pastille, tannin is good, with something of a stony character, fine ‘minerally’ acidity, raspberry frog with spicy finish. It’s maybe a little too sweet and minty, though it’s a distinctive wine of high quality. Very Eden.