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Walking with Kings: Thistledown Wines with Paddy Gilhooly
Grenache spent the better part of a century in South Australia as the grape left on the vine until the Shiraz was in. That neglect, strangely enough, is part of what makes some of the oldest vineyards in McLaren Vale so prized today.
Valérie sits with Paddy Gilhooly, co-owner of Thistledown Wines, the McLaren Vale project founded in 2010 by Master of Wine Giles Cooke and built on a patchwork of old Grenache vineyards that growers once struggled to sell. Edinburgh-born and now an Australian citizen, Paddy brings a perspective shaped equally by fine dining wine lists in the UK and a detailed knowledge of wine history.
The pair discuss Grenache's uneven history in South Australia: its arrival with Scottish viticulturalist James Busby in the 1830s and its recent, deliberate return to favour among growers and winemakers willing to treat old, low-yielding vines as an asset rather than a burden. Paddy speaks to what a single vineyard, and at times a single row, can reveal about a place, and to the strange arithmetic of vines that produce less each year yet somehow grow more interesting for it.
Valérie and Paddy taste together, a Rhône-inspired Roussanne Grenache Blanc named for a line of Rudyard Kipling's If, and an old vine Grenache from four vineyards in Blewitt Springs, paired with a cloth-bound cheddar matured close to thirty months in Valérie's own maturing room. What follows is a study in how the right acid and the right salt can lift each other into something neither reaches alone.
Thistledown Wines is a small-batch McLaren Vale producer specialising in single vineyard, old vine Grenache. Wines in this episode:
- Walking with Kings Roussanne Grenache Blanc https://thistledownwines.com/our-wines/Walking-with-Kings-Roussanne-Grenache-Blanc-2024-p746740505
- Fool on the Hill Grenache, Eden Valley https://thistledownwines.com/fool-on-the-hill-grenache
- The Vagabond Old Vine Grenache, Blewitt Springs https://thistledownwines.com/the-vagabond-grenache
Valérie Henbest is a French-Australian cheese specialist born in Normandie. Imports 10+ tonnes of French cheese monthly, sells at Smelly Cheese Shop, Adelaide Central Market. French National Order of Agricultural Merit 2023. Inducted into Guilde Internationale des Fromagers, Paris.
Sensing Up is a space to slow down, pay attention and let the senses lead.
Shop: smellycheese.co | Instagram: smellycheeseco | Facebook: SmellyCheeseCo
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By Valérie HenbestGrenache spent the better part of a century in South Australia as the grape left on the vine until the Shiraz was in. That neglect, strangely enough, is part of what makes some of the oldest vineyards in McLaren Vale so prized today.
Valérie sits with Paddy Gilhooly, co-owner of Thistledown Wines, the McLaren Vale project founded in 2010 by Master of Wine Giles Cooke and built on a patchwork of old Grenache vineyards that growers once struggled to sell. Edinburgh-born and now an Australian citizen, Paddy brings a perspective shaped equally by fine dining wine lists in the UK and a detailed knowledge of wine history.
The pair discuss Grenache's uneven history in South Australia: its arrival with Scottish viticulturalist James Busby in the 1830s and its recent, deliberate return to favour among growers and winemakers willing to treat old, low-yielding vines as an asset rather than a burden. Paddy speaks to what a single vineyard, and at times a single row, can reveal about a place, and to the strange arithmetic of vines that produce less each year yet somehow grow more interesting for it.
Valérie and Paddy taste together, a Rhône-inspired Roussanne Grenache Blanc named for a line of Rudyard Kipling's If, and an old vine Grenache from four vineyards in Blewitt Springs, paired with a cloth-bound cheddar matured close to thirty months in Valérie's own maturing room. What follows is a study in how the right acid and the right salt can lift each other into something neither reaches alone.
Thistledown Wines is a small-batch McLaren Vale producer specialising in single vineyard, old vine Grenache. Wines in this episode:
- Walking with Kings Roussanne Grenache Blanc https://thistledownwines.com/our-wines/Walking-with-Kings-Roussanne-Grenache-Blanc-2024-p746740505
- Fool on the Hill Grenache, Eden Valley https://thistledownwines.com/fool-on-the-hill-grenache
- The Vagabond Old Vine Grenache, Blewitt Springs https://thistledownwines.com/the-vagabond-grenache
Valérie Henbest is a French-Australian cheese specialist born in Normandie. Imports 10+ tonnes of French cheese monthly, sells at Smelly Cheese Shop, Adelaide Central Market. French National Order of Agricultural Merit 2023. Inducted into Guilde Internationale des Fromagers, Paris.
Sensing Up is a space to slow down, pay attention and let the senses lead.
Shop: smellycheese.co | Instagram: smellycheeseco | Facebook: SmellyCheeseCo