Winemaker Notes
Deep crimson with purple hues. A rich aroma of red and blue fruits, herbs and cedar, entwine with hints of sage, chocolate and savory notes. Juicy Raspberry and Satsuma plum fills the mouth, with allspice sweetness adding to the mouthfeel. The fruit is well balanced with hints of briary spice and textured, fine tannin.
Ideal companions to this wine are rabbit stifado, pork or duck roast, mushroom risotto, roasted vegetable tartlet, and matured cheese platter.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Langmeil's 2015 Orphan Bank Shiraz may be the best version of this wine I can recall tasting. It's prototypical Barossa Shiraz in all of its oak-laden, fruit-laced, supple-tannin glory. Vanilla and cedar frame blueberry and boysenberry fruit, while the wine is full-bodied without being heavy, with a lush, creamy mouthfeel and a long, velvety finish. Bravo.
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Wine & Spirits
The Lindner family of Langmeil set about to save a small parcel of 300 vines in Tanunda, planted in 1840. Rather than leave them to be bulldozed, they moved them to their property on the North Para River; 2008 was the first vintage in their new home. Seven years on, those vines produced a firm, red-fruited shiraz with aromatic tension that keeps layering different scents, from sage and eucalyptus to black-olive tapenade. Impressively long, even as it sustains a tight line of flavor.
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James Suckling
Some deep earthy aromas, as well as sweet-spiced oak and a layer of dark mulberries and plums. The palate is supple with a dollop of fleshy red fruit in the mid-palate, as well as long and fluid tannins.
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Wine Enthusiast
This inky-hued Shiraz is a deep well of blackberry coffee grounds, black pepper, licorice and vanilla. Those tones continue through to the palate where the plump fruit is balanced by lick of acidity and savory tannins. There's plenty of oak in the picture too, and it will need time to settle down. Drink now with plenty of time in decanter or age in bottle through 2029.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
Historically and presently the most important wine-producing region of Australia, the Barossa Valley is set in the Barossa zone of South Australia, where more than half of the country’s wine is made. Because the climate is very hot and dry, vineyard managers work diligently to ensure grapes reach the perfect levels of phenolic ripeness.
The intense heat is ideal for plush, bold reds, particularly Shiraz on its own or Rhône Blends. Often Shiraz and Cabernet partner up for plump and powerful reds.
While much less prevalent, light-skinned varieties such as Riesling, Viognier or Semillon produce vibrant Barossa Valley whites.
Most of Australia’s largest wine producers are based here and Shiraz plantings date back as far as the 1850s or before. Many of them are dry farmed and bush trained, still offering less than one ton per acre of inky, intense, purple juice.