Clarendon Hills tasting 19/09
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2026 10:32 am
Hi all - 6 of us from the Melbourne Tasting Group gathered in Saturday to taste some wines from Clarendon Hills. Here are my notes (jotted more from memory than contemporaneously taken)…
2025 Best's Great Western Foudre Ferment Riesling
Great nose, will benefit from time — the elements are there, enjoyable on a hot day. Large-format oak ferment giving it a textural, savoury edge against the site's naturally taut acid line - worth of the accolades it receives.
2025 Clarendon Hills Sandown Marsanne Roussanne
Love this — great colour, beautiful nose, balances sweet and dry seamlessly. Excellent foray into whites. Blewitt Springs fruit, with Roussanne doing the heavy lifting — waxy texture, stone fruit richness — against the leaner Marsanne backbone underneath.
2005 Clarendon Hills Onkaparinga Grenache
Definitely on the aged side — musty nose, more savoury, lots of cedar. Fruit from 1945-planted bush vines on rocky Blewitt Springs dirt.
2005 Clarendon Hills Romas Grenache
Fresh — this is beautiful. Fruit, savoury, meatiness/earth, holding up really well. Circa-1920 plantings, the older and generally more structured of the two Grenache sites, and 21 years in, it's clearly the more age-worthy of the pair, outrunning its stablemate.
2015 Clarendon Hills Onkaparinga Grenache
More fruit-forward, in a good place. Drinking well now - if you’ve got some, get stuck in I’d say.
2015 Clarendon Hills Romas Grenache
Corked.
Finishing with a Shiraz flight - both got a decant and returned to bottle ~3 hours before lunch.
2013 Clarendon Hills Brookman Syrah
Bitter style, powerful, iron/fruit. It’s a nice wine but not a world-beater. 100% new oak alongside Astralis, essentially the same winemaking template as the flagship, so what's showing here is genuinely site rather than cellar technique.
2013 Clarendon Hills Astralis
Velvet boxing glove — big and powerful while staying elegant. Long, dark fruits, spice, iron/tar. Beautiful wine, another 5-10 years to show its best.
An enjoyable day showcasing some SA wines.
Cheers, Ed
2025 Best's Great Western Foudre Ferment Riesling
Great nose, will benefit from time — the elements are there, enjoyable on a hot day. Large-format oak ferment giving it a textural, savoury edge against the site's naturally taut acid line - worth of the accolades it receives.
2025 Clarendon Hills Sandown Marsanne Roussanne
Love this — great colour, beautiful nose, balances sweet and dry seamlessly. Excellent foray into whites. Blewitt Springs fruit, with Roussanne doing the heavy lifting — waxy texture, stone fruit richness — against the leaner Marsanne backbone underneath.
2005 Clarendon Hills Onkaparinga Grenache
Definitely on the aged side — musty nose, more savoury, lots of cedar. Fruit from 1945-planted bush vines on rocky Blewitt Springs dirt.
2005 Clarendon Hills Romas Grenache
Fresh — this is beautiful. Fruit, savoury, meatiness/earth, holding up really well. Circa-1920 plantings, the older and generally more structured of the two Grenache sites, and 21 years in, it's clearly the more age-worthy of the pair, outrunning its stablemate.
2015 Clarendon Hills Onkaparinga Grenache
More fruit-forward, in a good place. Drinking well now - if you’ve got some, get stuck in I’d say.
2015 Clarendon Hills Romas Grenache
Corked.
Finishing with a Shiraz flight - both got a decant and returned to bottle ~3 hours before lunch.
2013 Clarendon Hills Brookman Syrah
Bitter style, powerful, iron/fruit. It’s a nice wine but not a world-beater. 100% new oak alongside Astralis, essentially the same winemaking template as the flagship, so what's showing here is genuinely site rather than cellar technique.
2013 Clarendon Hills Astralis
Velvet boxing glove — big and powerful while staying elegant. Long, dark fruits, spice, iron/tar. Beautiful wine, another 5-10 years to show its best.
An enjoyable day showcasing some SA wines.
Cheers, Ed