Charlie Melton is one of the saviours of Australian Shiraz along with Rocky O’Callaghan (ROCKFORD), Bob McLean (ST HALLETT) and others. In the late 1980s and early 90s he produced wines of such character and richness from dry-farmed (unirrigated) Barossa old-vine fruit that it rescued the grape from the also-ran category assigned to it in […]

This is a relatively new Barossa enterprise but with a deep heritage of grape growing near Greenock. Troy Kalleske working with his brother Tony only made the first wines in 2004 (previously the grapes were sold to the likes of Penfolds) but has already made a huge impact with the quality of the wines. Certified […]

Colin Glaetzer and his son (and winemaking whizz) Ben (also see MITOLO) have really lifted the quality of their own wines in recent vintages. Grapes come from unirrigated vineyards in the Ebenezer district of the Barossa Valley. The top wines are now very good indeed, not the blockbusters of old but more sophisticated, expressive wines […]

After 29 years at PENFOLDS, during which time he was Chief Wine Maker for 16 years, John Duval struck out on his own in 2003. Unsurprisingly for the man who made Grange for many years, old vine Barossa Valley Shiraz is at the heart of what he does. However, Duval is not seeking to recreate […]

Shiraz is the thrust of this operation for wines made by Wayne Dutschke from vines belonging to his uncle, Ken Semmler. St Jakobi, with an almost coconutty American-oak influence (60%), displays a deep fruit succulence and plenty of extract. Although oaky it has depth and character and deserves to be judged with 5 years’ bottle […]

Grant Burge has an impressive resource of 200 ha from which to make top Barossa wines. Nearly all are now prefixed with a vineyard name and are made in the recently reacquired old Krondorf winery. Shiraz is naturally the strongest hand, starting with a sweet-fruited Miamba, progressing to a fuller, richer, oaky but characterful Filsell, […]