When the Season Changes the Plan: The 2024 Wonderground Barossa Grenache
There are years in the vineyard when you follow the plan. And then there are years when the vineyard asks you to change it. The 2024 vintage was one of those years.
For Wonderground, Grenache has traditionally formed part of our Field Blend — a wine shaped by the different varieties growing together and, importantly, coming together at harvest. The idea is simple: when the fruit reaches the right balance of ripeness, it is picked and co-fermented, allowing the varieties to become part of the same story from the very beginning.
In 2024, the growing season had other ideas.
The different varieties were not ripening together, and waiting for them to converge would have meant compromising the quality of the individual fruit. Rather than force the vintage to fit our usual approach, we chose to listen to the vineyard.
And so, the 2024 Wonderground Grenache became something different: a wine made entirely from Grenache.
A vintage shaped by the vineyard
The Grenache for this wine comes from across Mirus Vineyards on the Central Western Ridge of the Barossa Valley, around Marananga. We worked with the fruit in two ways: 60% was destemmed, while 40% was retained as whole bunches. The fruit was then fermented in a small open-top vessel before being pressed and matured in stainless steel.
The decision to use stainless steel for maturation was deliberate. With no oak to shape the wine, the focus remains firmly on the fruit, freshness and character of the vineyard.
The result is bright crimson-magenta in colour, with aromas of wild strawberry and cherry layered with exotic spice and citrus blossom. On the palate, brambly berry fruit and fresh cherry meet lifted spice, fine tannin and a bright, mineral finish.
It is a Grenache with energy and detail, rather than weight for weight's sake.
A little less expected, perhaps a little more Wonderground
What we love about this wine is that it doesn't feel like a compromise.
Changing the winemaking approach has revealed another side of the Grenache in our vineyard. The wine is expressive and aromatic, with the brightness and lift we look for, but there is also substance underneath it.
That balance was something Erin Larkin of The Wine Advocate noticed in her review of the wine, awarding the 2024 Wonderground Grenache 94 points.
“This is balanced, lacy and detailed and offers grunt and substance, but that makes it pretty.”
Erin describes the wine through layers of cherry, redcurrant, red earth and tapenade, alongside rocky mineral character and floral notes — a combination that captures much of what we find compelling about Grenache from our site.
Dave Brookes of Halliday Wine Companion also awarded the wine 93 points, describing it as a “snappy, ginger-spiced grenache” with red plum, raspberry and cranberry, alongside citrus blossom, exotic spice, gingerbread, cola and earth.
He finishes by calling it “snappy and energetic with fine, powdery tannin.”
Two reviews, two perspectives, but a similar sense of what makes the wine distinctive: aromatic, energetic, mineral and finely structured, with more depth beneath the surface than first meets the eye.
Grenache, the Wonderground way
The 2024 Wonderground Grenache is a reminder that wine is ultimately a conversation with the season.
We can decide how we farm, when we pick and how we ferment, but the vineyard always has the final say. Sometimes the most interesting wines emerge when we allow ourselves to respond rather than insist on doing things the way they have always been done.
The Field Blend will return when the conditions are right.
For 2024, Grenache had something else to say.
And we think it was worth listening.
2024 Wonderground Grenache
Grenache | Barossa Valley | Central Western Ridge / Marananga
440 cases produced | 14.6% alcohol | Stainless steel matured | Screw cap
94 points — Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
93 points — Dave Brookes, Halliday Wine Companion
The 2024 Wonderground Grenache is available now. BUY HERE
