Winemaker Notes
-Wine Advocate
75% Shiraz, 20% Mourvedre and 5% Grenache. In the middle 1800's the Lange family settled from Bavaria in the Barossa Valley. The vineyard that they decided to plant was just off the main road of Nuriootpa. The vines have been dry grown since then and the grapes have gone into the great and good of Australia including ‘Grange'. Like ‘Château Haut-Brion' the town has grown up around it and it is now an oasis of a vineyard with houses surrounding it.
Exile is 100% sourced from the ‘Lange' Vineyard, now a part of The Colonial Estate. The single-vineyard wine is made up of old vine Shiraz with some Mourvedre and Muscadelle. The age of some of these vines date back to the 1800's.
The wine is made in the French fashion – low cropping aided by green harvesting, handpicking into trays, and double-triage on arrival at the winery. The wooden vats – shipped from Cognac in France -appear incongruous in their setting. The wine is picked ripe and, after vinification, poured into pure new French oak.
Exile manifests itself as a rush of substance, power, flavour, and length, but with an underpinning definition and elegance.
Professional Ratings
Though Syrah originated in the Rhône Valley of France, Australia is home to the oldest Syrah (called Shiraz here) vines on the planet. Found in Australia’s Barossa Valley, where phylloxera has never threated viticulture, these ancient vines are between 140 to 175 years old!
Having brought fame and merit to the country’s wine scene since the early 1950s, namely via the debut of Penfolds Grange, today Syrah (Shiraz) claims rank as the most widely planted grape in Australia. In fact, the amount of land dedicated to Shiraz in Australia is now almost equivalent to what it is in France. Australian Shiraz has its own personality with flavors and aromas of intense blackberry, fruitcake, menthol, tobacco leaf and umami. Conveniently one can find great Australian Shiraz at a variety of price points but the very best will be dense, gloriously complex and capable of long aging.