It can take a long time for the right person to walk into the right place, but when Mark Bulman, infused with the confidence of a Jimmy Watson grenache win, stepped onto the Stonegarten Vineyard with a mind to make a mark under his own name, various cogs in the universe shifted, and something important slipped into place. If Stonegarten was called Skywalker, I’d say that this vineyard has finally met its father, though in this case, I’ll settle for its maker. This is simply an exquisite wine. My first reaction, in all honesty, was that it’s completely different to anything I’ve seen previously from the Eden Valley. And yet, the longer I sat with it, the more Eden Valley it seemed. This wine sets sail for eden, as a concept, and then returns to Eden, as its home. It throws characters of stone, concrete, redcurrant, blood orange, mint, rust, seaweed and assorted other shopping list items, but it’s the flamboyance of its scent, the long raking farmland of tannin, and the collection of blood-splattered stones that really set it in its place. Yes, I think it’s good. I also think it’s a steal. -97pts, Campbell Mattinson for The Wine Front

This is the more open of the 2023 grenache pair, with darker red fruits, but there’s a familial thread of philosophy, of process, yielding a lucid clarity, a poise, and an uninterrupted view of fruit and site. Wild cherry, redcurrant, dusty white peppercorns, tamarind, orange peel, bitter herbs and a rugged mineral line rendered refined, evoking graphite, iron and struck rock, the drive of calmly resolute tannin sheathed elegantly with silky fruit, giving this an effortless feel, an engaging ease. That takes nothing away from the seriousness, though. It’s pinnacle Barossa grenache. -97pts, Marcus Ellis for Halliday Wine Companion