Bulman releases its 2025 grenaches

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Bulman Glen's Vineyard 2025 and Bulman Gary's Vineyard 2025 Grenache, resting on a stone table.

The 2025 Bulman wines are now out. Two wines a year is the whole of the Bulman release, so "out" means the pair of them: the Glen's Vineyard grenache from the Eden Valley, and the Gary's Vineyard grenache from Blewitt Springs in McLaren Vale.

Bulman has instantly become one of the hottest wine releases of the year. It’s deserved.

I loved the first four Bulman wines (two vintages, by two wines per vintage) and having now tasted the latest 2025 wines, I’m as impressed as ever. I won't put scores here – for those, and for the full notes, head to The Wine Front – but I'll say this much: the 2025s do nothing to slow the case I've been making for this producer since the first release. Indeed if anything, these releases amplify it.

The Glen's, from the historic Stonegarden vineyard, is the one that surprised me most this year – expressive, mineral, filigree, an Eden Valley wine that keeps rewriting what I expect of the region. The Gary's is depth and drive, all translucence and tension, with a tannin structure that made me (literally) swear out loud. Two wines, two vineyards, one hand, two different arguments for grenache, both as convincing as the other.

A quick word on the rise of Bulman: it might seem hyped for now but the truth is that everything Mark Bulman does is aimed squarely at the long term. There are no quick fixes or quick hits with Bulman. This translates to the wines in the glass; the wines are ethereal and pretty but, too, rock solid structurally. It also though applies to the way Bulman goes about business; he looks after his loyal buyers first, and the wider world second, and at every step everyone is looked after and everyone is considered. It’s no surprise that followers of the Bulman wines are already coming from far and wide to attend his annual release dinner in the Barossa. If you can get to it next year, get to it. It’s on my personal wish-list.

Full reviews of both wines: → 2025 Glen's Vineyard Grenache → 2025 Gary's Vineyard Grenache

New to Bulman? Start with why Bulman is a founding Mattinson 10-Star winery.

Campbell Mattinson

This post was written by Campbell Mattinson. Mattinson is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion book, former editor of Halliday magazine, former editor of Australian Sommelier Magazine and founder of The Winefront business. He is the author of five books on wine – four of which were bestsellers (The Wine Hunter, the Big Red Wine Book 2008, the Big Red Wine Book 2009, and the Big Red Wine Book 2010).

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award; is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter; and is the author of the best-selling novel We Were Not Men. He’s also a winner of a St Kilda Film Festival Award (as writer-director) and is a former winner of the national Best Australian Sports Writing Award. In 2026 three of his photographs were short-listed for the World Food Photography Awards.

Campbell Mattinson, who is 100% independent, has tasted between 5000 and 10,000 wines each and every year for the past 25 years. He tastes blind, in comparative brackets, as often as is practicable.

Campbell Mattinson is a journalist, a photographer, a filmmaker and a wine critic. In all of these mediums his prime motive is to tell people's stories.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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