Barossa Chapters Shiraz Barossa Chapters Shiraz Barossa owes much to Europe. Its name, cultural instincts, languages, food, viticultural and winemaking heritage, are all transportations that have been moulded and honed by 175 years of Australian innovation. Cover Image: John Duval John Duval Wines Barossa One could be forgiven for thinking Entrepreneurs with big visions built white wines such as Riesling and Barossa was settled by the Spanish. stone wineries and started making Chardonnay as well as medium body Its name can certainly be traced fortified “ports” and “sherries” as well reds such as Shiraz and Cabernet. back to the windswept Barrosa Ridge as fine table wines called “claret” and Now Barossa is the most recognised in the Spanish region of Andalusia “hermitage” and “burgundy”, paying name in Australian winemaking, due to where in March 1811 Lieutenant homage to European tradition. Barossa its forgiving viticultural environment, General Thomas Graham of the became the largest wine-producing its treasure-trove of century old British Army defeated the French region in Australia by the turn of the pre-phylloxera vines and its six Marshal Victor, during the Napoleonic century, sustaining a community of generations of grapegrowing and Peninsular Wars. grapegrowers, winemakers, cellar winemaking heritage. hands and coopers and earning Graham received a peerage and significant export income for the state But it has also evolved over 175 years was named Lord Lynedoch but it was of South Australia. into much more than a wine region. his young aide-de-camp Lieutenant Old Silesian cultural food traditions William Light who was to remember Through the 20th century Barossa had continue to be celebrated, such as the the name. When he was appointed its booms and busts – Imperial demand fermentation of meats into sausage Surveyor General of the new colony of crashed during both wars and in the and wursts; salting and smoking South Australia in 1836 and discovered post-war 1960s and 1970s customers hams and bacon; the preservation of a verdant valley he named it Barrosa wanted sweet sparkling wines such as fruits and vegetables such as pickled – and a slip of the pen by a public Barossa Pearl and Cold Duck. onions and dill cucumbers and the administrator gave the region its Finally Barossa settled on what its soils maintenance of age old baking unique name, Barossa. and climate do best – ripening red wine traditions: sour dough breads, pretzels grapes – and from the 1980s onwards and streuselkuchen. However it was not Spanish but English its fame grew for its full bodied Shiraz and Silesian settlers who pioneered and Cabernet, Grenache and Mataro. There are also European music traditions the region. The English, including the In the late 1990s during an still maintained such as brass bands and colony’s founder George Fife Angas, international boom in demand for men’s and women’s choirs and Barossa took over pastoral sheep and cattle Australian wine, the Australian Wine continues to be the epicentre Lutheran runs in Eden Valley, east of Angaston; and Brandy Corporation decided to faith in Australia with more than a and the Silesian settlers – mainly define Australia’s regions along similar dozen steepled churches dotted across peasant farmers and artisans fleeing (but less restrictive) lines to Europe’s the valleys. Prussian religious persecution – settled appellation system. the Valley floor at Bethany, Langmeil, This colourful culture has attracted Tanunda and Nuriootpa. The Barossa’s winemaking geographic thousands of new settlers over indication zone was formalised in 1997, subsequent generations, continuing After experimenting with a range comprising two regions: the warmer the immigration that started in the of crops, from flax to tobacco, the Barossa Valley “floor” specialising in 1840s, making Barossa a vibrant, Silesians found the Mediterranean red wine and the cooler, higher altitude diverse and exciting contemporary climate suited wine grapes. Eden Valley, which focussed on fine Australian community. Barossa Chapters Shiraz Barossa Shiraz Barossa has a 175- Barossa Shiraz. The name summons That type of necessity has always been year old tradition up a sensory adventure of colors – the mother of invention in Barossa. of producing violet to inky black, flavours that are Shiraz-Cabernet blends, often referred Australia’s finest a little licorice-tinged with some dark to as ‘claret’, were a dominant part of chocolate and plums, and textures that the wine landscape from the late 1800s Shiraz. Barossa are always generous, full bodied, warm and can claim to be one of Australia’s Shiraz ranges and earthy, with fine silky tannins and only unique wine styles – given from the famous an acid structure to ensure longevity. that France’s appellation d’origine and collectable to controlee system outlawed such multi- the friendly and Shiraz is the most widely planted grape varietal blending in 1919. In Australia, approachable: variety in Australia and Barossa can filling the trademark hole in Cabernet’s from the rightfully claim to be its spiritual home. mid-palate with a little Shiraz richness, traditional low- seemed eminently sensible! yielding, dry- Australia’s rarest and most collectable grown style laden wines are all Shiraz and they all In the 1990s a few far-sighted come from here – Penfolds Grange, visionaries realised the treasure trove with ripe fruit, Henschke Hill of Grace and Torbreck of the region’s old pre-phylloxera tannin and oak – The Laird to name a few. Barossa Shiraz vines and started paying wines that age for Shiraz also dominates the Langton’s growers handsomely for this previously at least 20 years – Wine Classification, Australia’s worthless fruit. So a new Barossa through to a finer, objective endorsement of quality, with Shiraz emerged: basket pressed out medium-bodied cult wines such as Rockford Basket of these old, low yielding vines it was style, picked at Press and Chris Ringland Shiraz. dark, concentrated, rich and – most lower ripeness, importantly – rare. with less exposure Before it reached thoroughbred status to oak, that is more Barossa Shiraz was a workhorse, used World-wide demand made some to provide the richness and colour and winemakers chase higher and higher fragrant and floral flavor in vintage and tawny “ports”. levels of concentration, oak and in composition. alcohol but that was a short term Then came a modern evolution – aberration – by the early 2000s Penfolds Chief Winemaker Max Barossa Shiraz had settled into a more Schubert returned from a fact finding balanced expression of place, its trip to Bordeaux where he learnt about robustness offset more by French oak ageing Cabernet in French oak. There than American and its alcohol levels was very little of either in Australia so hovering around 14°Baumé. he made his first Grange using Shiraz aged in American oak… and invented Now Barossa Shiraz ranges from the a style that would continue for the next famous and collectable to the friendly 70 years. and approachable… and everything in Paul Jaboulet came out from the Langton’s Rhone Valley in France. I put on my 1962 Hill of Grace and he put on his Langton’s Classification of Australian 1962 La Chapelle. What was amaz- Wine started in 1990 as an independent ing was how similar the wines looked “form guide” to Australia’s finest wines and and what they matured into. Our has become the most widely recognised wine was from vines that were over classification outside of Europe. Wines 100 years old, and his wine was from that enter the Classification must have a vines that were probably only about minimum of ten vintages and have established 40 years old. So the Old World was a consistent following by collectors and new and the New World was old!” investors at wine auctions (the secondary wine market). - Stephen Henschke From the inaugural Classification of 34 wines in 1990, the sixth edition – Langton’ s Classification of Australian Wine VI released in May 2014 – now records 139 wines. Barossa has the largest percentage of Shiraz based wines in the Classification. between. It is in blends that showcase its workhorse brothers Grenache and Mataro; it finds it way into an aromatic Exceptional Outstanding Excellent partnership with Viognier and adds The most highly Benchmark High performing body and texture to Tempranillo and sought after and quality wines wines of Touriga to Malbec, Sangiovese… and highly prized with a very exquisite occasionally even benefits from a first-growth strong market quality. type Australian following. splash of Riesling. wines. Charles Melton BVE Black Nine Popes Penfolds Grange* Pepper Shiraz Grenache Shiraz The energy amongst winemakers Mourvèdre and grape-growers to stretch the Chris Ringland Glaetzer Shiraz AMON-Ra Shiraz Elderton boundaries of Shiraz remains as Command Single Grant Burge driven as it was a century ago, with Henschke Hill of Vineyard Shiraz Grace Shiraz Meshach Shiraz an extraordinary diversity of new Henschke Henschke Mt Greenock Creek Keyneton flavours and textures from sub-regional Edelstone Shiraz Roennfeldt Euphonium Shiraz single vineyards. Road Cabernet Cabernet Rockford Basket Sauvignon Press Shiraz John Duval Plexus Even after 175 years the best Barossa Greenock Creek Shiraz Grenache Seppeltsfield 100 Roennfeldt Mourvédre Shiraz remains to be imagined Year Old Para Road Shiraz and created. Vintage Tawny Kalleske Johann Henschke Georg Old Torbreck RunRig Cyril Henschke Vine Shiraz Learn more and watch videos at Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon