2023 Thistledown The Vagabond Grenache

95 POINTS

Marcus Ellis - Halliday Wine Companion

From four Blewitt Springs sites, all old, dry-grown bush vine. One parcel was fermented in a concrete pyramid with crushed fruit and whole bunches, the rest open fermented with 35% whole bunches; maturation mainly in old puncheons. 2023 has delivered grenache of beguiling perfume. In the best examples there's also depth, spice and the structural architecture to age. Such is the case here. Dusky dark rose, cherry, wild raspberry, ground cinnamon, rosehip and bergamot tea with a ferrous substratum. The tannins across the ’23 grenache bottlings at this address are excellent, assertive in a finely sandy and gently pithy way.

95 POINTS

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

From four old vine, bush vine vineyards in Blewitt Springs. I’m all for single vineyard wines, though sometimes the sum of the parts makes for a more complete wine. Raspberry, red cherry, violet perfume, some dried herb and spice. It’s medium-bodied, crisp and quite frisky, all red fruits with with some blood orange and pomegranate, almonds too, tannin is all sort of crushed sandstone (or something like that), and the finish is aromatic, long and really quite pretty. Such energy. Lovely.

95 POINTS

Christina Pickard - Wine Enthusiast

The sandy soils of the Blewitt Springs subregion has become famed for top Grenache, as this bottling deftly demonstrates. A perfume that's hard to resist, Vagabond dishes all the exuberant blueberry and strawberry fruit this variety is known for, with lovely floral and white pepper spice notes threaded through. It's mid-weight but with quiet power sneaking in via firm, textured tannins. Those silky, succulent berry fruit flavors linger long on the finish. Drink now—2032.

94 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2023 The Vagabond Old Vine Grenache is succulent and silky and leads with a bouquet as polished and supple as the palate—raspberry pip, cranberry, red cherry, licorice, star anise and layers of Earl Grey tea and violets. It has beautiful clarity and poise, but this is what we have come to expect from this producer. Classy wine. 14.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

94 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2023 The Vagabond Old Vine Grenache is bottled in lighter-weight glass than the 2022 iteration—305 grams less, to be exact, and not imported glass, either. Brilliant. This 2023 Vagabond is looking so fine and crunchy, delicate and floral, silty and a little febrile. It's attractive and great. Very young, it's still in its vivid, exuberant phase. It's super. Irresistible, in fact. 14.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

93 POINTS

Ned Goodwin - JamesSuckling.com

Beautifully fragrant, mid-weighted grenache. Red-fruit allusions, pomegranate, menthol, dried rose petal and orange zest. 2023 was another cooler attenuated vintage, the last and perhaps the most challenging of a La Nina troika. Elegance writ large here, somehow synergistic with a Mediterranean-accented cru Beaujolais, such is the imminence, freshness, gritty tannin and shimmering transparency.

91 POINTS

Angus Hughson - Vinous

The 2023 Grenache The Vagabond has a more demure expression. It's understated yet finely tuned and highly engaging, with pomegranate and cherry pie aromas and a touch of dried flowers just below the surface. There is an attractive volume of flavor with dark cherry and pink peppercorn tones while retaining an elegant overall feel over a lengthy finale.