The Kaesler family arrived in the Barossa Valley from Silesia in the 1840s and in 1891 purchased land in the Barossa, spending two years furiously planting. They planted 96 acres of Grenache, Shiraz and Mataro, along with a few white varieties. Some of the original Shiraz vines are still producing grapes which provide great intensity and depth to many of Kaesler’s wines.
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Read moreChalk Hill Wines has teamed up with Never Never Distilling Co. and VPO (Vera Pizza Oztalia) to open an exciting new venue in McLaren Vale called Chalk Hill Collective.
Read morePindarie first produced wine under the Pindarie label in 2005. They have 100 acres planted on their 750 acre farm situated on the Barossa Valley’s Western Ridge. Fruit from the Western Ridge inspired the genesis of Spinifex Wines and forms the backbone of JJ Hahn, Murray Street, Kalleske and many other top end Barossa producers besides. Warren Randal of Seppeltsfield fame has also been snapping up vineyards in this part of the Barossa of late.
Tony Brooks from team Pindarie is a 6th generation pastoralist. He restored the stone buildings on site by hand, in the process earning for Pindarie a coveted and difficult to get Barossa Trust Mark…
Viticulturist Wendy Abrahart spent 12 years at Penfolds, becoming their senior viticulturist in the process before setting up and continuing to manage the 100 acre Pindarie vineyard.
Read moreThe Wallaroo Estate, located in the Canberra Wine District only 25 minutes from Parliament House in Canberra, comprises 300 undulating acres in the Hills of Hall area, with views over the Brindabella Mountains. Wallaroo Wines has about 100 acres under vine, yet make only about 800 dozen themselves from their best fruit. The balance of their fabulous cool climate fruit is supplied to several wineries rated 5 red stars by James Halliday, including Clonakilla, Nick O’Leary and Gundog Estate. The vineyard was established in 1996, with plantings of shiraz, cabernet sauvignon and riesling. It sits at an altitude of 560 metres, and includes plantings on a northern slope of decomposed granite. Climate conditions in the vineyard are similar to those in the vineyards of the Adelaide Hills and Clare Valley wine regions. Their winemaker is Dr Roger Harris, who with his wife Fay, established another successful local winery, the Brindabella Hills Winery. While Wallaroo Wines produce both still and
The annual cycle of a winemaker is certainly a curious one. There's no denying though, that vintage is one of the most exciting times of the year. Organisation of machinery, pickers, transport, staff, barrels, storage, tanks, meals, sleep is key but nothing comes close to the final hours of checking Baumé levels and waiting for the final breath from Mother Nature signalling removal of the wonderful juicy fruit from the vines, often under the cover of darkness. There are those who irrigate and those who don't; those who spray and those who won't, old oak, new oak, French oak, American oak, timing and terroir - and for all of these exciting reasons, each glorious bottle of wine you encounter is different to the one even 100 metres down the road. Where years ago growers would leave the grapes on the vines as long as possible as to yield maximum alcohol and natural sugars from our Australian sun, winemakers are leaning towards fresher, more aromatic blends meaning grapes are liftedRead more
First Creek have exceptional vineyard resources in the Hunter Valley, Orange and Hilltops regions of NSW. In a roundabout way they began when Greg Silkman bought The Tamburlaine winery in 1986, then went on to acquire Allanmere Wines before buying up even more high quality vineyards. Winemaker Liz has an amazing palate which is evident by her being awarded dux of the prestigious Len Evans tutorial, which James Halliday describes as the most exclusive wine school in the world. She has also been crowned Winemaker of the year at the Hunter Valley Legends awards.Read more
We can very happily vouch for their quality, as does James Halliday. Halliday rates First Creek Wines as a 5-red star producer, and offers the following… ‘The quality of the wines has been consistently exemplary, and there is every reason to believe this will continue in the years to come.’
We went out to visit our mates Paul and Kathy at Paracombe Wines towards the end of last year and had a bit of a chat about how Paracombe started and what the 2015 vintage is looking like for them:Read more
Read moreTo say the Alpha Crucis Winemakers Series is like a really stunning tribute album is doing the 6 chosen winemakers a massive injustice. It also belittles the respect and trust Alpha Crucis has in the said winemakers.Less a reinterpretation of Alpha Crucis wines as an experiment of an individual winemakers influence on a wines character and being. Indeed less tribute album and more like handing the same musical notes to Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Patti Smith, Eddie Vedder and David Bowie and seeing what music they all created. Starting with a small batch of Shiraz grapes from Chalk Hills Heritage Lot, Tom Harvey chose six winemakers to help bring his idea to life. Born only out of curiosity, the wines singularly are not intended to be judged, instead designed to be tasted for their range of characters and flavours born out of the creators varying influences. From here it was completely up to the six winemakers to determine how to produce their wine, from picking through