Giovanni Tait was a cooper who migrated to Barossa Valley in 1957, he took up work with B. Seppelt and Sons, where he took a hand in the élevage and maturation of the most memorable vintages. Tasteful and judicious use of oak remains an essential component of the winemaking traditions at Tait, none more so than the topical Rhone styled blend of Grenache, Mourverdre and Shiraz. Tait source fruit for the Wild Ride from choice sites on the southern Finders ranges, treating each parcel to an individual regimen of oak, a mere thousand cases are produced.

The old fashioned practice of treating ferments to a manually operated basket press, preserves the elemental rectitude and textural integrity of good wine. Bruno Tait sources a unique parcel of Shiraz from a single vineyard at Rowland Flat which yields a meagre tonne and a half per acre. The precious old vines are seventy years of age, they are consulted by Bruno twice a week at vintage time to determine the perfect day for picking. The vinification is wholly natural and very old world in style, an extremely limited 240 dozen are produced.

For such a small, hands on winemaking operation, Tait have won conspicuous praise from the most respected international reviewers. The attention to detail and strong relationships with the Barossa's best growers gives Bruno Tait access to high quality fruit which he fashions into a wine that reflects his own personality, generous and affable. A traditionally crafted, small batch wine, assembled from parcels of Barossa fruit that have been earmarked on the basis of opulence, exuberant tannins and refreshing acids, treated to the most adroit vinification techniques.

Warburn are amongst the Riverina's most conspicuous estates and one of Australia's most significant winemakers. They have extended their reach to retain good sites in the Barossa for the purpose of securing parcels of the finest Shiraz. Warburn's Stephendale Vineyards are exactingly husbanded to yield harvests of the highest order. The pick of Stephendale's grapes, exhibiting delightful spiced plum characters and vibrant tannins are fashioned into a generous wine which will be called upon again and again to accompany lamb cutlets or a gourmandise beef and burgundy pie.

St John's Road were generations in the making, the fruit of grand old vineyards and progeny of families which have tilled Barossa soil since settlement. A seamless assemblage of harvests from distinguished grower sites at Stonewell, Ebenezer and Light Pass. Parcels are crushed into ten tonnes, open top fermenters for a week on skins, pressed and racked into seasoned French oak hogsheads for a judicious six months of age. A lithe, perfumed style of Grenache, seasoned with spiced currant and fragrant sorbet notes, licorice and raspberry coulis, cherry cola and a wiff of wet funky game.

An assemblage of Shiraz parcels, hand picked off unique blocks of distinguished vine, up to a century of age, an arcane mix of ancient clones, which impart beguiling complexity. Shiraz clone 1654 proffers richness, power and dark, dark fruits, clone BVRC30 contributes elegance and length, Maywald infuses smooth, caramel sweetness. Fruit is treated to a week of open ferments followed by eighteen months maturation in seasoned and new French oak hoghsheads and barriques. Perfumed of thyme, savoury and sage, blackberries, leather and plum, over a length of refined, rounded tannins.

There's a 120 year old patch of Grenache on the Riebke family vineyard at Ebenezer known as Prayer Garden, so named because the pruners and pickers must kneel to husband the ancient vines. Cuttings from Prayer Garden were transplanted to a flat on the neighbouring Jones Road property, they yield a vibrant style of Grenache that's brimming with character and charm. Fruit is treated to ten days of ferment in open two tonnes vats, followed by ten months in 500 litres oak puncheons. Cherries and raspberry, licorice, savouryness and a twist of warm gamey spice.

The triumvirate of red Rhone grapes from a canon of eminent sites at Ebenezer, Stonewell and Light Pass, treated to a traditional course of open ferments and term of age in seasoned French oak puncheons. Grenache provides the sumptuous savouryness, a hint of leather and gardens in bloom, Mataro contributes fleshy fruits and wild game, Shiraz for structure, ripe plum flavours, fragrance and spice, grippy tannins in support, a layered, moreish finish.

The best of Barossa Cabernet, the pick of harvest from some great old vineyards at Stonewell, Gomersal and Light Pass. Components are all small batch fermented for a week before being pressed off for completion of malolactic and six months maturation in seasoned French oak hogsheads. Dark brick red, redolent of tobacco and herbal tea, blackcurrants and bay, a juicy style of fresh blueberry fruits, blackcurrant and savoury meats complexity. Fashioned to the tradition of Barossa Cabernet affability, supported by a line of solid structure, refined length of tannin and real generosity of flavour.

A compilation of prestigious parcels Shiraz from St John’s Road Resurrection Vineyard and some very old sites at Stonewell, Ebenezer and Valley Eden. Fruit is cold soaked for a week and open fermented before transfer to an extravagantly high proportion of new French oak hogsheads and barriques for twenty months maturation. Lifted and perfumed of dark cherries, coffee oak, violets and spice. An immense, full flavoured and elegant cool climate palate offering liquorice and mulberries, chocolate milk assortments, violets and spice, a beautiful wine to match truffled meats.

St John's Road has been brought back to life by the places and personalities, the heritage and folklore of Barossa Valley. Every winter weekend, the red blooded players at St Johns Road take to the footy field for a true blue test of skill, strength and character. Blood & Courage is the quintessential Barossa Shiraz, it's all come about because of great comeraderie and kinship between the crew. A play of ripe, rich fruit, balanced oak integration and skillful winemaking, Blood & Courage captures the very essence of ardent and impassioned Barossa team work.

Block 8 is at the northeast corner of Resurrection Vineyard on higher elevations of shallow rocky soils, planted to the Maywald clone Shiraz, a direct descendent of the oldest rootstock in Barossa. Hand picked grapes are treated to a cool temperature, open ferment for ten days, followed by completion of malolactic and ten months age in a selection of well seasoned French oak hogsheads and barriques. Block 8 yields a supple wine of comely eloquence, intricacy and elegance, a fresher, more delicate style of florals and fragrant herb, milk chocolate oak, ripe sugar plums and sweet vanilla pod spice.

St Hallett selects individual parcels each year for inclusion into the Reward, fruit is sourced from a tally of sites planted to red brown loam over shale and red clay soils in the south and central Barossa. Harvests from the cooler, slower ripening sites to the south of the Valley, yield parcels of the most intensely flavoured grapes. As vintage approaches, St Hallett's winemakers and viticulturalists spend time in the vineyards monitoring sugar/ acid profiles and flavour development, co-ordinating the harvest to a schedule based on complete ripeness.

An inspiring varietal mix of Shiraz and Grenache with Touriga Nacional, the traditional vintage port grape. A suite of yeast strains, each suited to a different parcel of fruit, serves to highlight the fresh berry, floral, spicy, earthy aromas contributed by Touriga and Grenache, while the richness and pepper spice of Shiraz builds palate weight and structure. Completely unoaked, Gamekeeper embraces the spectrum of ripe and savoury Barossa fruit, delivering a wine which is so much greater than the sum of parts.

St Hallett are an auspicious commune of ancient Barossa grower families and leading, accomplished winemakers. Established by the Lindner family during the closing days of the second world war, industrious pastoralists who would fill a horse drawn cart with daily cuts of meat for the local markets. Sourced from a coterie of superior Barossa vineyards, the Butcher's opaque purple hues hint at the generosity within, a solid and tightly structured wine, much adored for its distinctive mint and blueberry aromaticness.

Blackwell tells a story, evolution in the pursuit of excellence has been a consistent thread running through the St Hallett narrative, now recognised around the world as essential Barossa Shiraz. St Hallett has become one of Australia's most formidable labels, achieved purely through the warmth and honesty of its wines. Each year, the St Hallett team traverse the ancient viticultural precincts of Barossa Valley, in search of the requisite rich and robust, concentrated dark berry flavours, impenetrable colour and velvet tannins which are the trademark of Blackwell.

Each year, St Hallett walk the tightrope of flavour expression as they endeavour to capture all the rich and robust, concentrated dark berry flavours without falling into the abyss of overipe jammy and stewy characters. The keys to this balance are site selection and time of picking. Shiraz is sourced exclusively from the north and western slopes of Barossa. Parcels from the distinguished districts of Seppeltsfield and Marananga, Greenock and Ebenezer are picked off particularly low yielding vineyards which grow grapes endowed with intense flavours.

Blackwell is sourced exclusively from sloped vineyards around the north and west of Barossa Valley, precincts which yield small harvests of exceptionally concentrated Shiraz grapes. The focus is on preserving freshness and purity of these extraordinarily intense, dark fruit expressions, while retaining perfect tannin balance in the finished wine. The northern hamlets of Kalimna and Ebenezer contribute juicy dark fruit and rich mocha flavours, while parcels from western districts such as Seppeltsfield give Blackwell it's muscular, brooding structure.

Many of Barossa's most splendid vineyards are planted to heavy black alluvial soils, terroirs of cracking black Biscay clays, highly prized by canny viticulturalists as the source of the most exquisite fruit, redolent of berry compote perfumes, brimming with summer pudding flavours and sheathed in luscious velvety tannins. Shiraz grown to these superb sites yields a wine that's so delectable, so intense, that all the St Hallet team needs do, is treat components to a week of warm temperature ferments and a term of age in quality oak.

What Spinifex choose to do best is discover isolate parcels of old vine, sometimes overlooked or underloved, at the Cotes du Rhône end of the varietal spectrum. This is no flight of fancy, as the background of the husband and wife team includes many growing seasons in France. Papillon is bottled towards the end of vintage year. Crafted from very old material Grenache, Cinsualt and Mataro, Spinifex hand select the vines and pick grapes, vinifying the parcels with an aim of creating a wine that's all about freshness, fruit and spice, a wine that's bright and alive.

Peter Schell was winemaker at Turkey Flat from 2001 to 2005, where he familiarized himself with some of the Barossa's more obscure and precious sites. Gaining much inspiration from a succession of vintages in Provence, Peter Schell has assembled Mataro and Shiraz from a tally of old vineyards up to a hundred years of age, planted to propitious pockets of quartz shot clay and silty sand soils on the upper altitudes of Barossa Valley. Deep, complex and masculine, laced with blackberry fruits, brazil nuts, coffee and boudin noir.

Soul Growers are the work of four good mates, together they represent a century of combined industry experience, employing the knowledge and skill, generously shared by some of the nation's most illustrious winemaking legends. Taking a slight sojourn from their treasured gardens in the Barossa, they accidentally stumbled across a little block of Pinot Noir, secreted away from the road side and hidden within a gully of the Adelaide Hills. A chance meeting with the grower and a handful of barrels were crafted, open fermented, basket pressed and traditionally aged in very old French casks.

Soul Growers make wines which are true to the Barossa, heart and soul, the very soils which were tilled by pioneering ancestors, the distinguished old vines which have sired plantings throughout the entire nation and far abroad. The exquisite vintages of Soul Growers are defined by their eloquence of varietal character and articulation of sublime regional charm. It is the timeless accord of Barossa grown Cabernet and Shiraz which best articulates the enduring eminence of great Australian wine. An enthralling alchemy of succulent dark fruits, tarry savouriness and toothsome, chocolatey tannins.

A mere thousand cases of Provident Shiraz are passionately small batch vinified each year, crafted to express the integrity of the land, endowments of vintage and virtues of mateship, the very soul of Barossa Valley. Grapes are open fermented in small batches, keeping every parcel separate. Gentle basket pressings extract the juices, a traditional style of vinification preserves the expression of old fashioned Barossa viticulture, the wines are unfiltered and unfined. Provident is an assemblage of Shiraz from a dozen vineyards, matured two years in a selection of well seasoned oak hogsheads.

Soul Growers source fruit across the Barossa Valley floor, out to the high country of eastern Eden Valley ranges, from vineyards which are living history. Seppeltsfield and Tanunda, Krondorf and Langmeil Roads, Kalimna and Nuriootpa all make contributions. The work is completely manual, traditional techniques with minimal handling. The sacred cépage of Shiraz, Mourvedre and Grenache, has always been an essential tradition of Barossa winemaking, assembling the fruit of some glorious old vines into a seamless experience of heady perfumes, succulent fruit and gently undulating tannins.

A great, understated treasure of Australian viticulture is the softly spoken bequeath of ancient Barossa vineyard Mataro. Much of the priceless old rootstock was brought over by the first waves of settlers, an incalculable endowment which continues to keep on giving, generation after generation. Soul Growers grew up amongst venerable old vineyards such as these, practised and versed in the arcane art of encouraging the fruit to sing as a pure, personable wine. Lithely spiced, elegantly structured, voluptuously fleshed with the mouth watering succulence of opaque olive and black bramble fruits.

The ancient Romans made no secret that their success was due to a merciless use of power. In furtherance of their aim to sire generations of ruthless warriors and entrepreneurs, they taught their youth the myth of twins who established a city state. Remus was the sophisticated one and Romulus was a brute. Romulus slayed his gentler brother and gave his name to a great empire. Sons of Eden offer both, Remus of Eden Valley, elegant and refined, or the rich and powerful Romulus of Barossa, siblings and adversaries, destined to an eternal rivalry for your favour.

Corey Ryan is one of the nation's most intrepid, artisanal winemakers, a specialist at small batch editions, he is called upon by some of the most eminent brands to craft limited releases of the most memorable vintages in Barossa and Eden Valleys Shiraz. A compilation of fruit from the Marschall Family vineyards in the Tanunda and Ebenezer precincts of Barossa Valley. The rich iron soils of Ebenezer contribute sound structure, palate weight and length, the sandy terroirs of Tanunda bring exhilarating freshness and bright aromatic lift.

The topical old vines Barossa cépage of Grenache, Shiraz and Mourverdre, fashioned to a style which would have warmed the hearts of the earliest Barossa settlers. The dominant component of Grenache is picked off an exceptionally low yielding property at Light Pass, originally planted by the Kennedy family in the 1960s. Leo Joe Kennedy husbanded these precious old vines for decades, he knew each planting by name and reserved the pick of fruit for inclusion into many of the Barossa's most memorable vintages.

The temperate climes of Valley Eden are cooled by easterly gully winds, which ensure a long slow ripening and complete development of varietal characters in the grapes. A harvest of Cabernet Sauvignon from the warmer northern parts of the Valley, planted to auspicious red soils over limestone, is vinified alongside fruit from a cooler Eden Valley site, coalescing into a cornucopia of brambleberry and dulcetly perfumed blue fruit flavours. Only ever made in the most outstanding vintage years, barely more than a hundred dozen of Eurus were produced.