Some years ago, chief winemaker Chester Osborn, sought out additional super premium Grenache fruit from McLaren Vale to meet the high demand for d'Arenberg’s Grenache-based wines. Many very old vineyards showed promise and some of these vineyards have not been used for grape production for two decades. Some vineyards fell into neglect with weeds and native grass becoming more dominated than the vines, making them unproductive. Long bracken ferns and native grasses entwined and hid the vines and the vines themselves resembled Medusa’s hair - wild, struggling and gnarled. This was the inspiration in the naming of this wine. Taming and rejuvenation some of these vineyards have occurred, patiently over several years.

The appearance is vibrant and dark with an almost black centre. Immeiately when the wine is poured the aroma has a distinctive, brooding, old vine character. It is quite earthy but with a juicy red berry mix of maraschino cherries, cranberry, plums and tarry leather notes that is extremely complex and deep. As the wine opens further, the notes become more savoury and spicy with more exotic juicy characters coming through such as toasted fennel seeds, allspice, ground mountain pepper, quondong, vanilla bean and flowery notes. The palate is richly flavoured with a mix of ripe cranberry, mulberry, Turkish delight notes then you hit a wall of black fruits, jubes and dark red, sour cherries. The wine is very concentrated and powerful but trapped in a frame work of lively tannins and elevated acidity of which the finish is dominated by a mix of minerals and vibrant red berry notes. The wine is very elegant, dry and powerful yet has a wonderful softness about it which is what Grenache is all about. This wine will continue to develop for some time and will take you on a great journey.