Aphelion: A complete commitment to Grenache

Only a few months after arriving in McLaren Vale from Sydney, winemaker Rob Mack had made the decision to specialise in Grenache.

Soon after starting his job for regional contract producer McLaren Vale Winemakers, Mack identified extraordinary parcels of dry-grown Grenache from ancient bush vines, and made enquiries whether he could purchase some.

When the answer was yes, Rob and his wife, Louise Rhodes Mack, made an instant commitment to start their own wine brand: Aphelion.

They started in 2014 with one tonne of Grenache fruit purchased from the Brini family vineyard.

Notes and scores for 11 McLaren Vale Grenache from Aphelion below

‘It seemed like natural progress for us to pursue our own label, and for that label to have a very specific focus by diving very deep into Grenache,’ says Louise.

‘We started small and did everything by hand – right down to applying our own labels to the wines on bottling day – and it grew slowly by increments, because we wanted every bottle to be just right.’

Immaculate conception

It began an intense exploration of Grenache sites and styles, leading to Aphelion now producing seven Grenache wines, including two single-site expressions. The leading lights drew high scores in Decanter’s Australian Grenache Panel Tasting in January 2025.

‘I was driven by the desire to work with immaculate fruit,’ says Rob, who also makes another 12 small-batch wines from different varieties alongside the Grenache.

‘With Aphelion, I was able to perform a wine dump of all my thoughts about how to make wines of supreme elegance and finesse. There were new investigations to pursue each year,’ he explains.

‘I kept addressing the question of how to allow each vineyard site to shine, and that presented fresh challenges with every vintage. It was as much an intellectual exercise as a physical task, and I absolutely adored the focus it demanded.’

Grand cru Grenache

Grenache, in the hands of McLaren Vale’s most astute producers, has become Australia’s take on grand cru – rare, idiosyncratic and expressive, indicative of exemplary sites. Much of it hinges on the age of the vines, which run up to 120 years.

This combined with the complexity of the vineyard sites. McLaren Vale’s geology map, first produced in 2008, identifies 21 soil types aged up to 300 million years that dot the 7,438ha wine region.

Such complexity has prompted a surge in the number of single-site Grenache wines produced in recent years, triggering a tussle among boutique producers to procure the best fruit from privately owned vineyards.

Blewitt Springs – home to the Brini family vineyard – is an especially sought-after subregion of McLaren Vale. Its soils are characterised by deep sands and pockets of ironstone.

Rob and Louise realised this when they first approached the Brini family, noting that several other winemakers were already buying premium fruit from their vineyard.

However, the Macks were the first to feature the vineyard by name on wine labels, and their relationship with the Brini family has flourished over 11 years.

‘I’m so proud of the fact we have been able to build a famous name from a vineyard that wasn’t previously being shouted about,’ says Rob. ‘It certainly deserved to be, and we’ve proved that.’

Regionality and single sites

The Macks now purchase more Grenache fruit from the Brini Vineyard – along with some outstanding Chenin Blanc grapes – although Aphelion presents multiple Grenache expressions from McLaren Vale for each vintage.

A constant feature of the winery’s portfolio has been Confluence, a clever regional blend designed to show Grenache’s rich savoury mid-palate. It brings together fruit from different Blewitt Springs sites, with a range of winemaking techniques applied to different parcels, from whole-bunch ferments to extended maceration.

It captures the magic mix of sharp, youthful vigour and smouldering old-vine persistence supported by supple tannins.

Aphelion’s single-vineyard expressions show more refined definitions. Brini Grenache has roundness and intensity to its flavour profile, with dark plum fruits and earthy characters creating a wine of depth and richness.

The Wait Grenache has a more feisty, prickly personality, its long mid-palate agitated by a powder-keg of black tannins that shape a dramatic concluding note.

‘The different sites produce wines of significant difference, and we strive to capture those subtle differences in the glass,’ says Rob.

Taking the leap

Succeeding in this goal has triggered significant growth for Aphelion. From processing one tonne of grapes in 2014, then three tonnes in 2016, to 21 tonnes in 2017, Rob and Louise intensified their commitment to Aphelion.

‘We joined hands and took the big leap, because we realised we had something great happening here,’ they say. Rob, who also has a business degree, developed a business plan for Aphelion; while Louise was accepted into South Australia’s Youth Entrepreneur Scheme.

Increased volumes of wines brought people to their house in Willunga, where the front room became a sales office and tasting lounge for customers who booked by appointment.

‘It’s a crazy space, where our kids Clairette and Monty, and our pets were always charging through, but it was a true and honest representation of us and what we’re about.’

Importantly, from 2018 Rob has taken customers into the vineyards. He pours wines from the back of his ute (Australia’s beloved abbreviation of the flat-back utility farm vehicle) at the sites where Aphelion’s grapes are sourced from.

‘It adds a level of romance to the tasting, but it also reinforces the notion of site that we believe is so important to what people taste in our wines,’ he says.

Freedom to change

By 2020, in the middle of the COVID disruptions, the Macks decided to quit their other jobs and make a full-time commitment to Aphelion, as production escalated to 50 tonnes.

This has prompted them to lease a larger cellar door tasting venue overlooking vines north of McLaren Vale township.

Visitors can have guided tastings of Aphelion’s carefully considered range, which has expanded and contracted over the years. This reflects both the availability of fruit that hits a certain quality from the Macks’ preferred vineyards, and their interest in varieties other than Grenache.

Chenin Blanc has come to the fore, while Sagrantino and Nero d’Avola make guest appearances. Shiraz will disappear from the range from the 2020 vintage.

‘Being small and agile as a wine brand means that we are free to react and explore what can be next in our wine output,’ explains Louise. ‘We don’t have to remain fixed to anything.’

What’s next?

This attitude has inspired Aphelion’s latest project: the bold 2024 Hickinbotham Series of Grenache, sourced from three tiny blocks at the highest elevation points in the Hickinbotham vineyard in Clarendon.

All are picked on the same day and made the same way, with only 360 bottles of each wine produced.

‘It goes far beyond a single vineyard – to a sub-vineyard, micro-plot level,’ says Rob. ‘This project is designed to display the nuances Grenache can show from blocks that are so close together. There are very few varieties that could display these differences, and Grenache is one of them.’

It broadcasts their ambition to dive even deeper into Grenache. ‘We are looking harder at the fruit we purchase, to examine the points of difference and make more specific wines that focus completely on site,’ says Louise.

‘There will be more little projects that we sell through our cellar door – experiments that will inform Rob’s future winemaking decisions.’

This will include more parcels being fermented in concrete egg, along with different experiments in tannin manipulation and oak usage.

‘When we started Aphelion, I really wanted to present Grenache wines worthy of being talked about on the world stage,’ says Rob. ‘Now that we have put all the pieces together, I feel we are getting that reward.’

Aphelion: Top wines to try

Bottles tasted by David Sly in McLaren Vale and by Beth Pearce MW, Sara Muirhead MW and Ben Chan at the Australian Grenache Panel Tasting 2025, London.

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