Graeme Melton and a mate were travelling across South Australia in 1973, their EH Holden was in dire need of maintenance and Graeme took up casual work at a passing winery. The site supervisor was Peter Lehmann and young Graeme had his epiphany on the road to Barossa Valley. Lehmann suggested that Graeme change his name to Charlie and take the pilgrimmage to Vallee Rhone. Charlie became prepossessed with the culture of old vines Grenache, Shiraz and Mourverdre. He returned to the Barossa, at a time when old vineyard fruit was made into flagon Port and growers were destroying their historic sites in return for government grants. Charlie emabarked on a crusade to conserve and restore the ancient vines, establishing his cellars at Tanunda along Krondorf Road. He has since retained the most..
Melton makes a mean mourvedre»
Clonakilla are one of our nation's most eminent vineyard wineries, a tiny production operation, established by a CSIRO scientist at Murrumbateman, very near Canberra. It turned out to be a fortuitous planting, with a climate not dissimilar to Bordeaux and northern Rhone, the Clonakilla property now occupies a rank next to the mighty Grange on the prestigious Exceptional Langtons Classification, it yields vintages of Australia's most invaluable Shiraz. At $26.99, the estate's entry level belies its stature and excellence within the pantheon of great Australian wine, an essential experience this week for all enthusiasts, a canny choice for shrewd and judicious aspirants of elite new world Shiraz...
Here's what our most picky pundits prefer»
Touches of cedary oak and some complex pine needle and herbal nuances add to the appeal of the bouquet. The late, great Greg Trott, patriarch of Wirra Wirra, saw many of his unusual dreams realised, such as the construction... More»
A touch of barrel ferment characters adding subtle complexity and a further dimension to the palate. Brokenwood are renowned for Semillon, they retain vineyards from which to collate the finest parcels, a component is selected to... More»
Palate is mid weight, yet suprisingly supple and rich. Pinot Noir is the most temperamental of wine grape varieties and remains the ultimate challenge for many makers... More»
The palate is refined and elegant, mouthfilling with plums and mulberry, black cherry fruits and long, persistent fine grained tannins. Robert Strangways Wigley was an eccentric South Australian cricketer who established Wirra Wirra in 1894... More»
The palate is rich and fleshy with layers of Satsuma plum and raspberries interwoven with nutmeg and aniseed spice. Woodhenge is about big ideas, in the manner of cyclopean fences built by Australia's early settlers... More»
Ripe blackberry fruit palate, currant and red cherry flavours, the savouryness of olive and tobacco. Mike Press knows about red wine, he learned his craft at Penfolds while working alongside the man who created the... More»
The sensational vintages of St John's Road were generations in the making, the fruit of grand old vineyards and the progeny of families which have tilled Barossa soil since early settlement. The landed gentry along St John's Road represent a heritage of the most distinguished names in Australian viticulture, Lehmann and Lienert, Zander, Kalleske and Schutz. With each vintage, they earmark small parcels of the most exceptional Barossa fruit, to be treated to a course of traditional open ferments and term of age in the finest French oak. Bearing such pious Lutheran monikers as Prayer Garden and Resurrection Vineyard, these sacred sites are planted to some of the oldest clones in the world. St John's Road, you'll be drinking the very..
Brought to you by barossa born & bred»
Johann Gottfried Scholz served in the Prussian army as a battlefield bonesetter, before joining the great emigration of Lutherans from Silesia to Barossa Valley. After building a family homestead along the alluvial banks of Para River, Gottfried established a mixed farm of livestock and crops, fruit trees and grapevines, Semillon and Shiraz. His acumen at healing fractures and setting splints made Gottfried a leading local identity, as his homestead cottage evolved into the Barossa's very first private hospital. Over a century later, the exceptional quality of harvest from Gottfried's original homestead, made the fruit of Willows Vineyard, an essential component in the most memorable vintages of Peter Lehmann, Saltram and Kaiser Stuhl. Scholz are still in charge, pruning their vines and pressing their harvests into limited releases of..
Savour the shiraz by scholz»