The Sand Beneath the Vine: A Conversation with Master of Wine David Gleave

Australian wines have never been better, never more diverse, and the perception of them outside Australia has never been worse. It is a paradox that troubles David Gleave, and one he believes can only be undone through storytelling.

Valérie sits with one of the most respected figures in the wine world: a Master of Wine since 1986, co-founder of Liberty Wines, and now the man behind Willunga 100, a small-production Grenache label rooted in the sandy soils of Bluett Springs, McLaren Vale. What unfolds is less an interview than an unhurried exchange between two people who have spent their lives paying close attention to what is in the glass and why it matters.

The conversation turns to Grenache with a kind of inevitability. Once the most widely planted variety in Australia, it was largely torn out during the vine pull scheme of the 1980s, supplanted by varieties that suited a different moment. David sees its return not as nostalgia but as alignment. At Bluett Springs, where the vineyard sits at elevation above the Gulf of St Vincent and the sandy soils drain freely over a clay and limestone base, old vines produce fruit with a low pH and a natural acidity that needs nothing added. The sand, as David puts it, is the distinction.

Valérie and David taste together, a white Grenache from the 2025 vintage paired with a brèbi rosé, the soft sheep's milk from the Béarn, and a red from the Trot Vineyard, with its iron-rich sandy soils and more pronounced tannin, alongside an Ossau-Iraty from the Basque Country. Two pairings that confirm what this podcast continues to find: that pleasure deepens in proportion to what you know, and that a little attention to provenance, to texture, to the particular acidity of a grape grown in sand, changes what is in the glass entirely.

Willunga 100 is a boutique winery in Bluett Springs, McLaren Vale, specialising in old vine Grenache. The name draws from the historic Hundred of Willunga, an administrative area of 100 square miles established in 1839, three years after the first settlement of South Australia. In this episode: the 2025 White Grenache paired with brèbi rosé (soft sheep's milk, Béarn); the Trot Vineyard Grenache paired with Ossau-Iraty (sheep's milk, Basque Country).

Both available through smellycheese.co.

Valérie Henbest is a French-Australian cheese specialist born in Normandie. Imports 10+ tonnes of French cheese monthly, sells at Smelly Cheese Shop, Adelaide Central Market. French National Order of Agricultural Merit 2023. Inducted into Guilde Internationale des Fromagers, Paris.

Sensing Up is a space to slow down, pay attention and let the senses lead.

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