Clos Clare 'À Côté' Grenache 2022

Bright, lifted, savoury — Clare's altitude gives it freshness. The Clare take on the grape.

The grapes grow on a Watervale block the Barry family bought in 2019, planted with grenache vines that go back to 1938 and 1954. Watervale's red loam over limestone is dry-grown here, no irrigation, so old roots do the work of finding water deep in the limestone.

Picking happens by hand in March. The fruit is destemmed and fermented whole in small 500-litre open fermenters. It then rests nine months in French oak hogsheads that are already four or five years old. Old oak like that holds the wine's shape without adding new flavour on top. Tom and Sam Barry, grandsons of Clare Valley winemaker Jim Barry, run Clos Clare from a corner of the Florita vineyard.

Serve it lightly chilled rather than at full room temperature. It has the structure to sit next to a roast, but it is light-footed enough for charcuterie or a plate of pasta too.