Halliday Wine Companion: 2024 Syrah Grenache, 96+ pts

A blend of 68/32% syrah/grenache, from Clarendon, Blewitt Springs and Seaview; 22% whole bunch, aged in older puncheons and concrete. Even with the backseat role, grenache has a meaningful impact here, with lifted rose, musk and red fruit allusions, while the black fruits and blue/purple florals of the shiraz hang moodily behind. Blueberry, boysenberry, humus-rich earth, blackberry pastille, iron and black tea. This is such a precisely and positively judged blend, the varieties feeling on equal footing, not equally measured but working to their strengths in this collaboration, and like all the '24 Bekkers wines, there’s an ease to it, a weightlessness with intensity, a refined sweep of tannin, a gracefulness and vibrancy. This is darn good.