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Heirloom Vineyards were born of love. A romance between an esteemed wine judge and his protege, consumated by a shared passion to preserve the integrity of venerable old vineyards. A deference for the sanctity of the soil and adherence to the timeless procedures of organic viticulture, were an integral part of the vision. Their parching quest, to secure some grand old blocks of vine in the elder precincts of Adelaide Hills, Coonawarra, Barossa and Valley Eden, were followed by years of corrective husbandry, pencil label releases and bespoke vintages. The fostered old vines have now been resurrected, yielding treasured harvests of the most sublime new world.. Serenading sleeping vineyards to life»
Returned servicemen from the Great War could look forward to government grants of pastoral freehold. West Australia's Willyabrup Valley was such a place, just a short walk from the balmy beaches of Indian Ocean, it offered the veterans excellent potential for agriculture. The fertile lands of Sussex Vale were originally established to animal husbandry by the discharged troopers, generations of livestock enriched the soils and it was astutely sown to vines in 1973. Fortuitously placed at the very heart of the Australian west's most illustrious estates, it continued to occupy the thoughts of neighbouring Howard Park's chief winemaker, until he acquired the.. A better block on hay shed hill»
The Australian winemaking industry is grateful to Leontine O'Shea, instrumental in the establishment of Mount Pleasant wines, she sent her son Maurice to France for an education in viticulture right at the outbreak of World War I, gifting him his first Hunter Valley vineyard in 1921. Mount Pleasant are now custodians of some grand old sites, a canon of small, elite blocks of vine that yield a precious range of icon wines, which represent peerless value and readily disappear before release of the following vintage... The legacy of grand old hunter valley vineyards»
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.. Melton makes a mean mourvedre»

Brothers in Arms Formby Adams Cutting Edge CONFIRM VINTAGE

Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz Langhorne Creek South Australia
William Formby was among the early ardent pioneers of Langhorne Creek, he planted his first acreages of vine in 1891. Today his progeny still husband vines, the Adams of Langhorne Creek, are at the cutting edge of regional viticulture. Fruit is harvested from some of the most noble blocks on the Metala estate, to be fashioned into the enduring style of Aussie Cabernet Shiraz, a suitable match to roasts, stir frys or grills.
Available by the dozen
Case of 12
$239.00
Legendary winemaker Brian Dolan won the inaugural Jimmy Watson Trophy in 1962 with the 1961 Metala Vineyard Shiraz Cabernet. The best fruit from the historic Metala property is now reserved for the estate's own Brothers in Arms and Formby/ Adams, as well as a number of well known labels and smaller boutique wineries such as Oddfellows and Killibinbin. Cutting Edge is a mostly Cabernet wine with a portion of Shiraz, grown and vinified to a mix of traditional and modern vineyard management and winemaking practices that produce the best possible wine from the famous Metal Vineyard. Matured for fifteen months in a combination of one to four year old French and American oak barrels.
Deep purple colour. Savoury biscuit, vanilla and spice aromas with menthol uplift. Huge berry fruit, pepper and cedar spice with a touch of rhubarb. A mouthfiling wine with superb textures, sublime integration and quenching mineral. The persistent length and fine grained, juicy tannins ensure this is a wine to be enjoyed with good food and fine company.
$10 To $19 Reds Langhorne Creek
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Brothers in Arms
Although Metala was settled in the mid 1850’s on the banks of the river Bremer and is a 5th Generation vineyard with a long and proud family history, it has been the brothers who made it what it is today

The vineyard comprises 750 acres of vines composed predominantly of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon with a small area of Chardonnay. The Adams family have broad acre farming and merino sheep breeding for wool and meat production. Brother Guy Adams manages the Vineyard and supplies various wine companies with high quality fruit. Particularly Beringer Blass who produce the estate label Metala which has been made for over 40 years. Wine had been made in the stone cellars at Metala from the late 1890s and then in 1910, through family connections Stonyfell took over, still using the original open fermenters and cellars.

Brothers in Arms

In 1952 production of the wine was moved to Stonyfell. Brian Dolan, winemaker at the time, conceived the idea of Metala becoming an estate wine and in 1959 sketched out the Metala label. Brian won the inaugural Jimmy Watson Trophy in 1962 with the 1961 Metala Shiraz Cabernet. Bryan’s son Nigel Dolan is now the Head Red Winemaker for Beringer Blass and continues the tradition of producing this iconic label. Aside from the big companies, Metala also provides fruit for a number if smaller boutique labels other than Brothers in Arms, such as Oddfellows and Killibinbin.

Brother Tom Adam’s decision to focus on a global market paid off but he has travel to the USA twice a year for up to 4 weeks at a time to meet key American industry people and to sell the brand name ‘Brothers in Arms’. He also works in the European market as well as around Australia. The brands success is because Tom is committed to marketing as the USA Grateful Palate owner says ‘he is a real salt of the earth kind of guy’ who gets results.

"Metala has been our family's property since the 1850s and it's also the name of the premium Beringer Blass label made entirely of our fruit. Our original plan, back in the early 1990s, was quite simple - grow the grapes, get a local processor to make the wine, then bottle it and sell it. We decided to select a single varietal as a flagship wine and focus wholeheartedly on it. Shiraz was the obvious choice as our Shiraz has always been fantastic.

Brothers in Arms

"We started mucking around with small parcels of fruit with our father. At that time it was really just a hobby for us and it gave us something of our own to drink. In 1998 we took a small amount of fruit and turned it into 500 cases of Shiraz at Lake Breeze winery in Langhorne Creek. It was so bloody good that we didn't know what to do with it! We couldn't drink it all, so we started to think seriously about the future.

"Right around this time a pesky American came and knocked on my door. As it turned out it was Dan Phillips, a leading distributor from California, who was making regular trips to Australia looking for high-end lots of premium Shiraz - he felt there was going to be a market for it in the States.

"Somehow he picked up on us and he annoyed me so much that I gave him some unlabelled samples to test. He flew back to LA, phoned me four days later and told me to get a label on the rest as he could sell it! This led to our next problem as we didn't even have a name. I rang Ian Kidd, a designer in Adelaide, who came to Langhorne Creek and spent half a day with us. He came back with the Brothers In Arms label, and an awfully big bill, and we loved it.

"We released the 1998 vintage at Wine Australia in Melbourne in 2000 and it sold out within six weeks. We decided to make 4,500 cases for the 2000 vintage, but that was stretching the limits at Lake Breeze. We couldn't grow any further there so we decided to build our own winery at Metala. We started building in September/October 2001 and it was ready for a March 15 vintage in 2002 - this was no easy process. We love the wine and we know you will too."

Brothers in Arms