Jauma Wines’ McLaren Vale grenache is too good to ignore

If, like me, you’re excited by good grenache, track down one or all of these Jauma Wines.

James Erskine, the owner and winemaker at Jauma.

In warm climate regions such as South Australia’s McLaren Vale, grenache is a better grape than shiraz, especially when it comes to making wines that taste of where they’re from.

That’s got your attention, hasn’t it? Well, it has if you’re a wine geek and/or you reckon McLaren Vale shiraz is the bloody duck’s guts, mate, and grenache is for girls.

I know it’s a generalisation, but the more I taste of the new wave of grenaches coming out of the region — wines made from lower-cropped, more carefully farmed vines by producers looking to emphasise the grape’s inherent perfumed, savoury qualities — the more I think I may actually believe it.

Exhibits A, B, C and D: the latest release of the wonderful 2015 McLaren Vale grenaches from Jauma Wines.

Before we go on, I need to get a few things out of the way. James Erskine, the owner and winemaker at Jauma, is a friend of mine. We have hung out together a bit over the years, and have worked together on various events.

I should also tell you that these Jauma wines fall very much into the “natural” camp: they come from organically farmed vineyards, and they’re all made and bottled with no additions — no added yeast (the fermentations are wild), no preservatives.

To be honest, for both these reasons I have hesitated over writing about these wines: I feel uncomfortable with the potential for perceived of conflict of interest in recommending a mate’s bottles, and I feel a bit predictable raving about yet another bunch of natural wines you’re probably going to find only on the list in some inner-city hipster bar.

But, well, bugger it: I am going to recommend them because I think they’re extraordinary, and I believe it’s my job to alert you to extraordinary wines — as long as I do it in a transparent way.

The range kicks off with the 2015 Jauma “Like Raindrops” ($30) an immediately likeable, seductive, medium-bodied expression of the grenache grape, made with heaps of whole bunches in the ferment, exuding aromas of violets and red berries and wild herbs, and with a lovely powdery freshness on the tongue. The 2015 Jauma “Gramp Ant” ($35) takes the taster into the darker, more animal worlds of the grenache grape: like someone’s soaked a leather strap in blackberry juice and dragged it through wet clay befoe laying it on your tongue.

Then there’s “Ralph” and “Alfred”, both $50 a bottle, from two sections of the same vineyard in Clarendon: the former, from vines grown in a patch of shallow, rocky, iron-rich dirt at the top of the hill is deceptively pale in colour, with the most entrancing, ethereal, spicy perfume and fine, persistent, gentle grip; the latter, from deeper soil a down the slope, is also perfumed and peppery, but is more dense, vinous and sinewy.

If, like me, you’re excited by good grenache, track down one or all of these. Regardless of who made them, they are simply some of the best grenaches in Australia.

jauma.com