2023 Koonunga Creek Block Grenache
($38.25 Wine Club price)
Ian Becker’s old bush block in Koonunga is caught in time. Farmed by Ian Becker for many years, an isolated place that produces special grapes. Adrian Hoffman took over the management of the vineyard for the 2020 vintage. Yields are typically low, the 5 acre block producing less than 5 tonne, but the fruit was once again exceptional.
The Koonunga Block produces classic Barossa flavours, highly perfumed, unusually powerful for grenache, with substantive fruit weight, grip and tannin. A wine of intensity and grip that reflects the vintage year to perfection. This can be enjoyed for many years
($38.25 Wine Club price)
Ian Becker’s old bush block in Koonunga is caught in time. Farmed by Ian Becker for many years, an isolated place that produces special grapes. Adrian Hoffman took over the management of the vineyard for the 2020 vintage. Yields are typically low, the 5 acre block producing less than 5 tonne, but the fruit was once again exceptional.
The Koonunga Block produces classic Barossa flavours, highly perfumed, unusually powerful for grenache, with substantive fruit weight, grip and tannin. A wine of intensity and grip that reflects the vintage year to perfection. This can be enjoyed for many years
($38.25 Wine Club price)
Ian Becker’s old bush block in Koonunga is caught in time. Farmed by Ian Becker for many years, an isolated place that produces special grapes. Adrian Hoffman took over the management of the vineyard for the 2020 vintage. Yields are typically low, the 5 acre block producing less than 5 tonne, but the fruit was once again exceptional.
The Koonunga Block produces classic Barossa flavours, highly perfumed, unusually powerful for grenache, with substantive fruit weight, grip and tannin. A wine of intensity and grip that reflects the vintage year to perfection. This can be enjoyed for many years
Technical Tasting Notes
2023 KOONUNGA CREEK BLOCK GRENACHE
GROWING SEASON
The 2023 Barossa Valley vintage will be remembered as one of the latest vintages in recent memory. After a wet winter the rains continued well into November, it was certainly unlike any other. This meant the growing season was off to a slow start. The Barossa season from this point on was almost perfect. Warmer than the 2022 vintage, but cooler than the long term average.
TASTING NOTE
Ian Becker’s old bush block in Koonunga is caught in time. Recently brought under the Hoffmann banner with Adrian Hoffmann at the helm. An isolated place that produces special grapes year in, year out. The vineyard naturally crops low, essentially dry grown bush vines farmed as they were 100 years ago. Hand picked, the fruit was de-stemmed before being transferred to our small fermenters. Once dry, the wine was transferred into older French oak puncheons for 9 months prior to being bottled in late 2023.
The wine is highly perfumed, with an intense fruit driven mouthful of red fruits, tannin, clearly powerful but with a subtlety and balance that suggests a wine that will cellar and improve for some time in the right conditions.
SPECIFICATIONS
Region: Barossa Valley
Sub Region: Koonunga
Variety: Grenache
Alcohol: 14.7%
Production: 1300 bottles
Cellaring: 5 years+
Winemaker: Andrew Seppelt
Download Technical Tasting Notes 2023 Vintage ➝
Download Technical Tasting Notes 2022 Vintage ➝
Download Technical Tasting Notes 2021 Vintage ➝
Download Technical Tasting Notes 2020 Vintage ➝
REVIEWS
2023 Koonunga Creek Block Grenache
Not Yet Reviewed
2022 Koonunga Creek Block Grenache
Huon Hooke (The Real Review)
93 Points - Medium-full red with a tint of purple and a herbal, cola, Campari, sweet cherry liqueur nose, query whole-bunch fermentation. A superb range of aromas. Full bodied and quite firm in its tannins, a powerful, emphatic wine with a lot of drive and persistence. Impressive wine, with a big future if cellared. Needs another year to fully gel but already impressive. 14 JAN 2024
WINE COMPANION (DAVE BROOKES)
95 Points - Grenache sourced from the old Becker block, now managed by Adrian Hoffmann way up in the north of the Barossa at Koonunga. Jeez, this is a pretty wine. Perfumed and lifted with citrus blossom top notes above the pure red plum and cherry fruits. Hints of cola, ginger cake, clove and cherry clafoutis. It's initially quite sweetly fruited but fades to savoury on the tail, silty creek tannins and bright acidity in check; there's detail and deliciousness here, to be certain.
2021 Koonunga Creek Block Grenache
Andrew Caillard MW (The Vintage Journal)
93 Points - Medium crimson and very approachable with lifted red cherry, chinotto, plus hints of herb garden aromas. Buoyant and slinky textured on the palate with pure red cherry and raspberry fruits, attractive mid palate viscosity and fine supple tannins underpinned by crisp acidity.
Now–2026
NED GOODwin (jamessuckling.com)
93 Points - This is very good. To be a pedant, I'd like more tannin to placate the sweeter Barossan fruit, but hey, this beautifully crafted grenache demands absolute respect. Pointed aromas of mulled cherry, root spice, rose water, bergamot and clove reverberate across the juicy, full-weighted palate. The tannins that are there, nicely hewn and gently edgy, promote the cascading fruit sweetness. Long and compelling, as long as one enjoys sweet fruit flavors. Drink or hold. Screw cap.
Steve Leszczynski (Qwinereviews.com)
95 Points - Andrew Seppelt says this is the best Grenache he has ever made. Take a sip and you'll know what he means. It's sleek, refined and simply damn smashable. Go here. It's a pearler.
Classy all the way, the polish is evident and I just want it all. And perhaps I did just that. This 2021 is a blend of the Koonunga Creek North and Koongunga Creek South parcels which previously stood proud in their own right in the Hayes range. Nothing has been lost in the process mind you. If anything, more has been gained. Petals, dried roses, juicy raspberries and bright red cherries all glisten with a sly strawberry appeal sliding in late. Delicate spices add another level of interest with a moreish factor. Such a pleasurable drink, Grenache lovers are in for a treat.
Drink to five years+
2023 James Halliday Wine Companion (Dave Brookes)
94Points - Deep red purple in the glass with lifted aromas of blood plum, mulberry, black cherry and blueberry fruits cut with exotic spice, jasmine, ginger cake, earth and a hint of musk and licorice. Deep, resonant fruit profile, earth and pure with fine-ground tannin and ample acid drive on the rich, plummy finish. Lovely.
2020 Vineyard Series Koonunga Creek South Grenache
Not Yet Reviewed
2019 Vineyard Series Koonunga Creek South Grenache
2021 Wine Companion (James Halliday)
95 Points - From an old hand-tended bush block yielding less than 1t/a. Hand-picked, 20 days on skins, 9 months in used French oak. This doesn't attempt to conceal its power, the deep colour a giveaway. It carries its weight without complaint. 50 dozen made.
Q-Wine Reviews - www.qwinereviews.com (Steve Leszczynski)
95 Points - Such a pretty and fragrant Grenache. I just want to swim in it. Of the three Hayes Family Wines new Grenache releases, this catapulted me to heaven.
Attractive red flower and rose petal aromas hook your interest early. Delicately medium bodied, Grenache is often referred to Barossa Pinot and this is a classic example of that. Raspberries and strawberries seep through its pores. Super fine spices send gentle ripples of pleasure through the mouth.
Run to this and don't leave until every drop has been devoured.
Drink to six years+
2018 Vineyard Series Koonunga Creek Grenache
2020 Wine Companion (James Halliday)
97 Points - An old bush block farmed by Ian Booker for many years, lost in time. Only 33 dozen numbered bottles made (this one 313), it spent 20 days on skins and 9 months in used French oak. It is by some distance the most powerful and tightly structured of its siblings, and without any confection. Has the tannin structure to ensure it will live for years.
Drink by: 2038
