It's dangerous talking to Stephen Pannell. By the end of any conversation with this talented and exuberant winemaker you want to buy loads of top wine and cook up a feast just to see if you can get the balance right.

Balance is a word he often uses when talking about food and when it comes to making wine. Grenache is another. Pannell considers himself a bit of a crusader for the variety that is woefully underrated in this country. Big mistake, he says.

"We don't hold grenache in the same light as the French but, for me, there are wonderful things about the variety and we need to pay attention to them," he says.

"Firstly, it's sustainable environmentally - it can be dry-grown and that's more and more an issue for us. It's like a warm-climate pinot noir: ethereal, with a light, elegant palate, without being sweet. It's perfumed, with unctuous, grainy tannins. That's why I love it."

He sources grenache from two disparate, stunning vineyards in McLaren Vale - one on sandy soil with vines that are about 67 years old and the other on red soil with 40-year-old vines.

The sandy soil tends to produce finer wines, says Pannell, and from that site he makes a straight grenache - but only when the fruit's outstanding. None was made in 2005 but there will be some in '06 and '07.