Giles Cooke and Fergal Tynan met in a bar in 1988, the night before each began the Master of Wine course. That may sound like the introduction to a wine trade joke, but it isn’t! Both went on to pass their exams and, eventually, they founded Thistledown. They wanted to explore some of the great vineyard sites across South Australia, and they were getting frustrated that Australian wine was becoming stereotyped as big, alcoholic and unsubtle. They knew it didn’t have to be that way. Their first love was Grenache, which they followed into great vineyards in McClaren Vale. But soon there was Chardonnay as well, and other varieties, and iconic sites across the Barrossa Valley, Adelaide Hills and Langhorne Creek.

They buy in grapes from trusted growers. They want fruit that is balanced; low yields are essential, but not too low, or the fruit gets over-concentrated. They estimate the sweet spot between purity and concentration is about 3 tons per acre, which is what they want from the growers. Old vines are a wonderful resource, but not a universal panacea. ‘In some years, having a trellised, judiciously irrigated middle-aged vine may well provide wine of better balance than a dry grown old vine’.

And then there is their consultant Peter Leske, who has worked for (among others) Grosset and Domaine Dujac. He has his own winery (the former Nepenthe winery in the Adelaide Hills), and that’s where the Thistledown grapes go. The base fruit is so good, the winery work is kept pretty straightforward. It is all a very modern wine-world story. (NT 24/08/23)