Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2005 Shiraz "1843 Freedom" comes from a dry-grown vineyard planted in 1843 which is believed to be the oldest surviving pre-phylloxera Shiraz vines in Australia. The wine was aged for 24 months in 70% new French oak and bottled unfined and unfiltered. Purple-colored, it gives up a sexy perfume of pain grille, smoke, violets, blueberry, and blackberry liqueur. Surprisingly light on its feet, the wine is full-flavored, opulent, and very long. Give it 5-7 years to blossom fully and drink this hedonistic effort through 2025.
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Wine Spectator
Ripe, round and expressive. A complex range of flavors hang easily on a sleek frame, with cherry, boysenberry, roasted red pepper and savory accents that play themselves out harmoniously. This finishes well, but not quite as expressively as it might. Drink now through 2015. 500 cases made.
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.