Thistledown Wine Company works with a unique blend of unrivalled fruit sources and the experience of both the New and the Old Worlds, lent by our 2 Masters of Wine. We craft wines of subtlety, texture, and detail – wines a long way down the path to perfect balance. Best known as one of the leaders of the contemporary Grenache movement, Thistledown Wines make small batch Grenache, Shiraz, and Chardonnay from McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley, and the Adelaide Hills. Alongside Wild & Wilder Wines, benchmark regional varietals and Mediterranean blends, and Millions Suns, sustainably certified wines from The Riverland, we produce world-class wines with quality, value, and sustainability at their core.

On a beautiful hillside in the Clarendon sub-region of McLaren Vale, three generations of the Smart family have devoted their lives to Grenache. Decades have passed were precious few valued their crop and yet they endured. The fact this remarkable vineyard has sustained is down to one man, Bernard Smart and this wine pay homage to this charming man. From a near-perfect vintage and 100-year-old vines, this wine displays muscular yet elegant silky black fruits coupled with deep, rich, warming spices, and hints of violet, mineral, and black cherry.