The Brennecke Vineyard is located on the North-Western corner in the Seppeltsfield district of the Barossa Valley. Marilyn Homes is the custodian of the vineyard, her maiden name being Brennecke. The vines were planted at the turn of the twentieth century in 1901.
I have been managing this vineyard with Marilyn since 1992. The Brennecke vines are dry grown and pruned by the bush vine method. The vines experience a steep South-Easterly slope and grow in heavy red clay, over limestone subsoils. These factors together allow the fruit to accumulate a high phenolic content at ripeness, which translate to tremendous palate structure and tannin backbone in the wine.
My belief is that very few Grenache vineyards have the potential to produce a single varietal Grenache wine, with only rare examples like this one able to provide structure and age-ability. After decades of working with many of the great Grenache vineyards of the Barossa, I believe the Brennecke vineyard to be unique and unrivalled in the style of Grenache wine that it produces.
The wine is aged for 24 months in new Troncais French oak barriques , I must admit something that I would have considered heavy handed if I had not seen it done before by my great friend Alvaro Palacio in Priorat.
“Ripe red cherry and redcurrants are intertwined with aromas of rhubarb, kirsch, Turkish delight and subtle notes of cedar and white pepper. The palate reveals a sensual, sleek tannin profile which supports a red-fruited core of cherry and cranberry. The palate is multi-layered with complex flavours: red fruits, cedar, spices, hints of vanilla and cinnamon. A truly sensual wine; plush and generous through to the finish
DAVE POWELL
The 2016 Powell & Son Brennecke Grenache is a highly regarded, ultra-premium, flagship red wine crafted by the renowned father-son winemaking duo Dave and Callum Powell. It is an exceptional, small-batch expression of single-vineyard Barossa Valley Grenache sourced from an iconic block of dry-grown, 115-year-old historic vines in Seppeltsfield, benefiting from an outstanding, highly balanced 2016 vintage.
- Aromas: Intense aromatics of ripe red cherries, kirsch, black raspberries, and Turkish delight, followed by wafts of woodsmoke, white pepper, sweet rhubarb, and subtle cedar.
- Palate: Full-bodied and multi-layered, featuring crystalline-pure flavors of pie cherry, dried cranberries, licorice, and incense wrapped in a sensual, ultra-fine tannin profile.
- Style: Rich, powerful, and opulently textured, perfectly balancing muscular old-vine heft and lavish sweet fruit density with remarkable freshness, savory complexity, and an epically long finish.
- Winemaking: Sourced from the historic 1901-planted Seppeltsfield vineyard, hand-managed, and matured in 100% new premium Tronçais French oak barriques to add structure and depth.
- Cellaring: Showing magnificent tertiary evolution of dried herbs, tobacco, and exotic spices right now, but possesses the outstanding structural balance to continue cellar aging gracefully through 2032.
- Food Pairing: Pairs magnificently with crispy Peking duck pancakes, wood-fired roasted squab, juniper-glazed rack of lamb, or mature hard cheeses.
The Powell & Son Brennecke Grenache is a sublime, unique expression of bush vine Grenache, delivering a sophisticated, deeply layered expression of ancient-vine depth and dark-fruited power
Powell & Son
Powell & Son may be a relatively new label, but it is the creation of a man with one of the most formidable reputations in Australian wine. Dave Powell is the founder of Torbreck — the Barossa juggernaut that took the wine world by storm in the 1990s — and he brings that same depth of knowledge and conviction to everything he does.
That inspiration is reflected in the varieties Powell & Son work with: Shiraz, Grenache and Mataro for the reds, and Roussanne, Marsanne and Eden Valley Riesling for the whites — the classic Rhône palette transplanted into two of Australia's most celebrated wine regions, and interpreted with the kind of quiet mastery that only comes from a lifetime in the vines.
