The winemaking tradition in Australia is rich and has varied greatly over the last two centuries.  When early European immigrants arrived and sought to continue their cultures and traditions in this new land, they found a vast majority of the continent quite warm for growing grapes.  Some arrived to the newly formed city of Adelaide, South Australia in the 1830s and found a valley, near to the northeast, that would later become the nation’s most iconic wine growing region.

Throughout the following 140 years Australia produced primarily sweet and fortified wines, of which the aforementioned Barossa Valley was no exception.  The warm climate in the days before refrigeration, made producing and storing good wine unreliable.  Many English settlers however were familiar and intimately linked with the great wines of Portugal and their methods of wine preservation by fortification, i.e. adding brandy spirit to the wines.  Fantastic port-style wines continue to be made in the Barossa Valley from ancient Shiraz, Grenache and Mataro vines, but many producers along the way sought to more accurately replicate the real McCoy by planting indigenous Portuguese grape varieties as well. 

Less understood (read:  marketable) vines however often have a short shelf life, as wine is also subject to the vagaries of fashion and preference.  Our featured producer this month has sought out those remaining growing heirlooms of a previous time and interwoven them into a delight for today.  This small winery sourced most of this wine’s fruit from old indigenous Portuguese vines in the Barossa Valley.  The Cabernet Sauvignon contributes its length with familiar structure and is sourced from the McLaren Vale and the cooler Langhorne Creek’s underrated older vines.  We are excited to share this aromatic and generous red, which is inspired from Australia’s dynamic history.

This wine is dry, soft and full with intriguing aromatics.  There are pleasing pastry sweet aromas of blackberries with brandy-soaked fruit cake. But also present are leather, black olive and rich earth aromas.  This is a pleasing round wine for the colder months ahead.