Eperosa SGG 1858 Grenache 2023

Bottle of Eperosa SGG 1858 Grenache 2023.

Eperosa SGG 1858 Grenache 2023
$70, 14% alcohol, cork, Barossa Valley.

The Barossa and Eden valleys are being nudged, wine by wine, into new territory – and this release is one of the wines doing the nudging.

It's light in colour and light on entry, but don't be fooled: what it's really trading in is complexity and persistence, which in wine terms is the equivalent of carrying yourself well and knowing it. Smoked meats, red cherries, redcurrants, brick dust and twiggy herb notes run through it, along with an orange rind character that leans almost negroni-like – though listing flavours here feels beside the point, because the whole comfortably outruns the parts. There's tannin, there's lightness, but above all there's conviction. This is a wine that could deliver the half-time address – and have you believing the game of life is there to be won. 96 points – Campbell Mattinson.

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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