Brash Higgins

'Smart Vineyard' Grenache 2022

For more than a century, the Smart family has tended bush-vine Grenache on a steep slope above the Onkaparinga River in Clarendon. It’s the highest, coolest and arguably most famous Grenache site in McLaren Vale. Brad Hickey, the former New York sommelier behind Brash Higgins, sources a single parcel from the vineyard’s 1955 plantings, dry-grown on red clay loam peppered with quartz and ironstone. His take is hands-off but distinctive: wild-fermented with 50% whole bunches, then 20 months in seasoned French puncheons. Expect perfumed raspberry, sour cherry and cranberry, with rose petal, dried herbs and a hint of spice, carried by fine, sandy tannins and bright acidity. It balances traditional Grenache generosity with the lighter, finer style now emerging from the Vale. Just 60 dozen were made, so it’s a rare taste of a grand cru site.