SC Pannell Sunrise 99 Grenache 2022

SC Pannell Sunrise 99 Grenache 2022
$250, 14.5% alcohol, screwcap, McLaren Vale.

It’s not quite time for Grange to move over, but it is now true that many of the best red wines produced in Australia each year are being made with grenache. This wine from SC Pannell is made from 99-year-old Grenache vines (at the time of vintage; they’re now 100+-years-old) growing in the Blewitt Springs sub-region of McLaren Vale. These vines are east-facing, which means that they face the sunrise.

Yowsers this is good. So firm, so long, so intense; it’s like staring into the eye of a tiger as it mauls you. Red berries, dry spices, stonefruits hanging, flowers flung. It’s a dry juicy ricochet of a wine. Fluff no more. This is grenache for the ages. 97 points.

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Reviews for this wine started coming out in August–October 2025. These reviews were generally raves, including a 100-point score from Erin Larkin at The Wine Advocate. It’s interesting that in May 2026 – more than six months after these stellar reviews – that this wine is still being advertised heavily on Facebook, and that it’s even available on Kogan. Clearly no matter how good the wine is and/or how prestigious the winemaker, that selling an Australian grenache for $250+ per bottle is no easy task. It’s also interesting that Erin Larkin’s The Wine Advocate 100-point score is being pushed and promoted as far and as hard by the winery as it possibly can, as you would expect and as is entirely right/fair. But in general, Erin Larkin’s name isn’t being used by the winery. The score is promoted as Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate 100/100. Each to their own but in my view, that’s disrespectful to Erin, shortsighted, and is a mistake by the winery.

The wine itself is magnificent.

If $250 is too rich for you, the S.C. Pannell Little Banch Grenache 2023 – grown on the same vineyard as the Sunrise release – is excellent too.