Barossa Chapters Old Vines Barossa Chapters Old Vines 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: Marco Cirillo Cirillo Estate Wines Pewsey Vale, The Contours Riesling, Eden Valley Henschke Hill of Grace, Eden Valley 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 Old Vines Barossa’s multi- generational vineyards have outlived floods, fires and wine industry booms and busts to be among the oldest in the world. Dry grown and low yielding they produce concentrated, long living wines that are in high demand internationally. Now Barossa has an Old Vine Charter to help preserve and protect these rare plantings. Langmeil, The Freedom 1843 Shiraz, Barossa Valley Yalumba Nursery Grenache Barossa Old Vines Barossa is home to some of the oldest In the 1980s a State Government We were the first to acknowledge surviving winegrape vineyards in sponsored scheme to remove old that these old Shiraz vineyards the world, with one gnarly old cluster unwanted varieties and “modernize” were a rare and valuable resource believed to date back to 1843. the industry saw many of these vines in the Barossa, something that we fall to the bulldozer. However, a small should value and protect. There was This claim isn’t marketing hype. In the group of true believers paid growers definitely a distinctiveness about 1860s the vine aphid phylloxera was to keep their old vines – mainly Shiraz the wines that came from them. For introduced to European vineyards in and Grenache – and by the 1990s me the realisation of how precious vine planting material from the USA they became highly prized for their these vineyards were, was a turning and by 1889 nearly 90% of European low yields of concentrated fruit. Small point in my winemaking career.” vineyards had been killed. The pest pockets continue to be maintained in also spread to Australia, devastating Bethany, Langmeil, Krondorf, Greenock Robert O’Callaghan, vineyards in New South Wales, Victoria and in the northern Barossa. Rockford Wines and Western Australia. While the idea of a Charter had South Australia was the only colony to been debated for a number of years, have a far-sighted quarantine policy it was the Yalumba Wine Company that restricted the importation of vine that declared its own framework for planting material, which meant that classification in 2007, gifting it to the vineyards planted by the early Silesian broader Barossa region in 2009. settlers in the 1840s and 1850s in the Barossa continued to flourish. The Barossa Old Vine Charter – classifying vines into four categories by The other reason that Barossa has age – is dedicated to the recognition, such old vines is attributed to typical preservation and promotion of Silesian frugality – why pull out a vine old vineyards. if it is still bearing fruit, especially good fruit that makes great wine? Barossa Chapters Old Vines Barossa Old Vine Charter & Old Vine Wines Our old vineyard was planted Barossa Old Vine Barossa Centenarian by the Graetz family in 1848 Equal or greater than 35 years of age Equal or greater than 100 years of age and is the oldest continuously These vines have grown beyond These pre-phylloxera vines have been producing Grenache vineyard adolescence and are now fully protected and permitted to mature into in the world. They are not mature. They have a root structure their thick, gnarly trunks and naturally- good because they are old, and trunk thickness that promise sculptured forms without interference. they are old because they’re grapes that have a diversity of flavour Noted for their low yields and intensity good. They stayed in the and character. Their worthiness has of flavor, planted generations ago ground all of those years been proven over many vintages, – when dry-farming techniques because they produced good consistently producing the highest demanded careful site selection – wine consistently. In the quality fruit for Barossa wines of Centenarian Vines have withstood the hotter years they manage distinction and longevity. test of time. the heat better than younger vines, and in wetter years • Pewsey Vale, The Contours • Henschke, Mount Edelstone they plod along at about the Riesling, Eden Valley Shiraz, Eden Valley. same pace producing soft, • Chateau Tanunda, Old Vine • Elderton Command Single delicate Grenache, year in, Semillon, Barossa Valley Vineyard Shiraz, year out. Young vines make • Bethany, LE Shiraz, Barossa Valley Barossa Valley. great wines too but they • Chateau Tanunda The Chateau are more affected by the Shiraz, Barossa. environment. Our old vines are part of the environment.” Marco Cirillo, Barossa SurvivorVine Barossa Ancestor Vine Cirillo Wines Equal or greater than 70 years of age Equal or greater than 125 years of age These very old vines are a living symbol An Ancestor vine has stood strong and of traditional values in a modern proud for at least 125 years – a living environment. A Barossa Survivor vine tribute to the early European settlers has reached a significant milestone, of the Barossa. Their genetic material and pays homage to the resolute has helped to populate the region with commitment of those growers and irreplaceable old stocks that underpin winemakers who value the quality and viticultural tradition. Mainly dry-grown, structure they impart to old vine wines. low-yielding vines yielding grapes of great flavour and intensity, they • Kalleske, Old Vine Grenache, are believed to be among the oldest Barossa Valley producing vines in the world. • Burge Family Winemakers, Garnacha (Grenache), Barossa • Cirillo Estate, 1850 Grenache, Valley Barossa Valley. • The Willows Vineyard, Single • Hewitson, Old Garden Vineyard Semillon, Mourvèdre,