Winemaker Notes
The Steading has a fragrancy, purity of fruit, mid-palate concentration and savory tannin profile that makes it a favorite amongst the Torbreck team. Vibrant aromas of red currant, cherry, pomegranate, violet, star anise and spice all unfold to reveal an impressive array of underlying fruit flavors. Silky, dark red fruits, black olive, savory earth, licorice and Asian spices. These complex yet elegant flavors are all neatly interwoven with a perfect balance of acidity and supple, silky tannins. The Steading will continue to develop with time in the cellar, and provide those with patience great enjoyment well into the next decade.
Blend: 60% Grenache, 21% Shiraz, 19% Mataro
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Ripe but sinewy tannins mesh beautifully with dark berry and black olive on the chamois-smooth palate. There's smoked meat, ink, lavender and Turkish Delight riffs, with iron filing minerality to the lengthy finish. Sourced from 40- to 150-year-old vines from Gomersal, Lyndoch, Greenock, Moppa, Marananga, Seppeltsfield and Ebenezer, this polished 60% Grenache blended with Shiraz and Mataro is aged in 4,500-litre French oak foudres.
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Wine Enthusiast
Plush, plummy fruit is accompanied by fistfuls of savory herbs and spices, purple beets, tobacco leaf and iodine in this rich red. The palate is tightly structured but balanced. Although silky in nature, the fruit is cinched in savory, talc-like tannins. Oodles of herbs and spices flow right to the finish.
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James Suckling
A blend of 53% grenache, 28% shiraz and 19% mataro. Each component has been elevaged in large-format oak (4,500 liters) and this is the wine that reflects the vintage style and quality. It shows the all-round consistency of 2018 with bright red and blue berries, some red pastry notes and deeper, earthy, slightly tarry notes, too. The palate has a rich, supple and fleshy texture with ripe red-plum and raspberry fruit flavors, as well as soft, late-picked tannins. Drink over the next eight years.
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Wine Spectator
Dense, aromatic and complex, with kirsch, dried cherry, white pepper, black tea and olive tapenade. Details of fresh earth, cedar, tobacco and dried violet linger on the long finish, with a note of fresh cardamom. Grenache, Shiraz and Mataro. Drink now.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The newest release, the 2019 The Steading, offers restrained aromatics of mixed berries and cherries interlaced with hints of savory herbs. If it lacks the ripeness and richness of the 2018, it's more elegant and perhaps more complex, with those herbal striations adding silky textural elements to the medium to full-bodied palate. Gentle tannins linger on the finish.
With bold fruit flavors and accents of sweet spice, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre form the base of the classic Rhône Red Blend, while Carignan, Cinsault and Counoise often come in to play. Though they originated from France’s southern Rhône Valley, with some creative interpretation, Rhône blends have also become popular in other countries. Somm Secret—Putting their own local spin on the Rhône Red Blend, those from Priorat often include Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. In California, it is not uncommon to see Petite Sirah make an appearance.
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.