Australia – Reclaiming National Treasure
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The basket presses at Rusden
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There's a certain irony in the fact that the best
Australian producers are now making hand crafted,
small batch and single vineyard wines, often from
vineyards that, for decades, produced fruit snapped
up by the giants of the country's wine production,
perhaps ultimately to be blended with the produce of
vineyards lying hundreds of miles away.
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And it wasn't long ago that these same giants were
bottling liquids that tasted as though they were all
made from the same pot of melted bramble jam.
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The oldest Shiraz vines in the world are to be found
in Australia. Some of the fruit that's pressed to
make up the wines below is sourced from vineyards
planted in the 1870s. Why is this worth noting? Well,
because old vines have big roots with which to suck
up more of the character of the soil on which they
are grown. And they produce less fruit into which to
cram all that character, less fruit around which to
spread all that energy produced by such an antique
plant each vintage.
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One of the pleasures of being truly independent is
that we are not tied to a list that obliges us to
offer wine from the same producers year in year out,
regardless of vintage variation. We have previously
offered only one of the four estates below, and then
it was a different wine from a different
vintage.
So I guess that this offer could fall under the
banner of “diversification”.
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The Producers and Wines
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Yarra
Yering
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Oxford educated Dr Bailey Carrodus found his ideal site
in the Yarra Valley in
the late sixties and commenced a program of planting.
No wine had been produced commercially in the valley
since 1921, but it was the valley's "traditional"
varieties - Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz - that Dr
Carrodus included in
these initial plantings. He also included some Pinot
Noir.
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The wines made largely from Cabernet and Shiraz,
labelled Dry Red No.1 and No.2 respectively, have
become widely known as some of the finest and most
age-worthy reds of Australia. The cooler climate in
the valley, just an hour or so to the north-east of
Melbourne, produces wines of great finesse and
structure. The same holds for the Pinot Noir.
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Alas, Dr Carrodus died on
19th September this year, so this offering is
something of a tribute to a true vinous voortrekker.
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Rusden
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Christian Canute, Dennis’s son, finds a
levelness of spirit
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This estate has existed since 1979 when Christine and
Dennis Canute bought a chunk of land in the Barossa
which, at the time, was considered a source of
blending wine by the big producers.
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Dennis started titivating his vineyard, which had
become rather run down. He even grubbed up some very
old vine Grenache and Mataro (Mourvèdre), a decision
he now (unsurprisingly) regrets.
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The name Rusden is an amalgamation of the names of
Dennis and his mate Russell, with whom he made his
first ever barrel of wine.
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We have offered Rusden before in the form of their
Black Guts Shiraz (I have drunk the 1999 vintage
recently and it still needs a great deal of time. It
does not, however, render one's innards deep-hued.)
The wines have a tell-tale Rusden character: they are
not that dark in colour and have a high-toned
complexity that I love. They are quite different to
the usual belt-and-braces, full-blown Barossa wines.
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Teusner
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Wine maker Kym Teusner
and viticulturalist
Michael Page
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Kym Teusner (pron. Toyzner) gained a BSc from
Adelaide University in 2001 and determined to return
to the Barossa Valley in order to experiment with
Rhône varieties. One day he overheard a
conversation between his brother and his girlfriend's
uncle about the fate of an old Grenache vineyard; its
then owner found working the vineyard and selling the
fruit to be uneconomical. They counted their pennies
and managed to club together enough to buy 25% of the
fruit from the vineyard for their first vintage.
Things have snowballed ever since.
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I tasted a range of Teusner wines the other day and
felt compelled to offer the best of them.
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Kalleske
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Brothers Tony and Troy Kalleske
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From a winery no more than 8 years old, we come to a
family that have been farming grapes in the Barossa
since 1853, although to be fair, Kalleske have only been
bottling their own wines since 2004, previously
selling off their fruit to the “majors”.
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The estate is situated in Greenock which, along with
Ebenezer, is one of the two famed quality kernels of
the Barossa.
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All wines here come from Kalleske's own vineyards and
both the wines here offered are sourced from single
vineyards.
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| Vintage |
Wine |
Drink dates |
Case size |
Price
IB |
Notes |
Order |
| 2006 |
Johann Georg Shiraz, Kalleske, Barossa Valley, South Australia, Australia |
2014-2022 |
3x75cl |
£147.00 |
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| 2006 |
Greenock Creek Shiraz, Kalleske, Barossa Valley, South Australia, Australia |
2012-2019 |
12x75cl |
£243.00 |
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Show all wines with notes in printable format |
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