LVDO Clarendon Rose 2024

Ingredients: Grapes, 30 ppm sulphites

Vegan, unfined and unfiltered.

13.3% ABV
750 mL

Grape: Syrah

Vintage: 2024

Vineyard: Bekkers Clarendon Vineyard, Clarendon, McLaren Vale

Planted: 1990

Elevation: 300 m

Production: 1080 bottles

LUC: $32.2

In late 2023, Toby and Emmauelle Bekkers invited me and a small group of McLaren Vale winemakers for a casual benchtop tasting. We looked at Syrah, Grenache and Cabernet wines newly made from their Clarendon Vineyard Estate. The tasting sheet indicated there was a small parcel of Shiraz grapes available from the 2024 vintage for a long-term agreement. The red wine made from the top block located on pure schist with a thin topsoil, tasted breathtaking. Fragrant, elegant, linear, yet packed with flavour and tension. Result of a cool, elevated, and terraced vineyard in a warm region. I knew I had found the missing part for my ambitious rosé project! Now making Australia’s first collectable rose that can be cellared for 8-10 years feels closer and closer! And trust me, it makes a hell of a red too: Bekkers Clarendon Syrah

Winemaking: As previously, the winemaking is a culmination of all techniques I have played with since 2021: whole bunch pressed, short-maceration, wild-fermented and aged in various formats of ancient barrels (15+ years old puncheon and barrique) with a slightly longer elevage (18 months) than in previous years. I also started a perpetual reserve aged under flor in 2021 with the purpose of adding complexity, savouriness and texture (similar to the perpetual reserve in Grower Champagne). There is an 8% perpetual reserve included in the 2024 Clarendon Rose. While it's a different style from most Australian roses, every step was taken with intention and deliberation to make a serious and complex wine with elegance and persistence.

95 pts, Ryan Montgomery, jamessuckling.com

“Aromas of citrus oil, herbs de Provence, salted nuts, rose petals, cheese rind and orange rind. The palate is textural and refined, with excellent density, fine phenolics, fine acidity and a saline drive. Made with 8% perpetual reserve wine and aged for 18 months in barrels. This is unlike what anyone else is doing in Australia. Not for everyone, but it’s great and very serious. Drink or hold.”