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By those wonderful folks who bring us Shaw & Smith. Tolpuddle was planted to vine in 1988, on a highly precious site along Back Tea Tree Road, just outside of Hobart. The inaugural vintage claimed Tasmanian Vineyard of Year in 2006. The illustrious Messrs Martin Shaw and Michael Hill Smith acquired the property in 2011, with a view to elevating the excruciatingly limited release Tolpuddle to the status of a national Grand Cru. A singular experience in new world Pinot Noir, Tolpuddle unravels endless layers of pastoral complexity, powerfully structured yet elegant, immaculate and poised... From little vineyards great wines grow»
Somewhere near the Seaview end of McLaren Vale's Chapel Hill Road, a perfunctory passerine perched her pincers astride a pair of power poles and saw herself alit. Down she went amongst the dry grown branches of an old Grenache vineyard, setting the valuable veterans ablaze. The scorched site eventually came to the attention of a winemaking trio, the Messrs Leske, Tynan & Cooke, Masters of Wine and a venerable vintner, all driven by a consuming passion to make greater Grenache. Thistledown vintage very small amounts of the most extraordinary Grenache. Beautifully detailed and conspicuously elegant, their floral bouquets and graceful finish emulate the aromatic.. Polly & the pyre to paradise»
Torbreck of Barossa are one of Australia's great export brands, synonymous with luxury and excellence throughout the world of wine. Crafted from the fruit of old and ancient vineyards, the opulence and exclusivity of Torbreck's painfully limited production challenge the primacy of Grange. Established by a share cropper in the 1990s, its precious range has risen to the status of First Growth amongst the community of ardent international advocates. Woodcutter is the entry level, assembled from parcels which may have been destined for some of the brand's lofty icons, an essential experience for all enthusiasts of compelling Barossa Shiraz... Chew a chop of woodcutter's wine»
Balgownie are one of our nation's great small vineyards, pioneers of the reprise in Bendigo viticulture, with the foresight to establish vines in 1969, the first local plantings in over eighty years. Grown to terrains very near the tailings of Victoria's original gold rush, the auspicious Balgownie vines yield discreet yet exquisite harvests of the most edifying and undervalued Victorian vintages. A bespoke favourite amongst enthusiasts of the old school style in elegant and finely boned Aussie Shiraz, Balgownie represent the essential accompaniment to meaty eggplant inspired recipes, or a princely roast of lamb, the best of.. Balgownie begets the best of bendigo»

dArenberg Custodian Grenache CONFIRM VINTAGE

Grenache McLaren Vale South Australia
d'Arenberg own and manage nearly a third of all the old Grenache bush vines in McLaren Vale. The very first instalment by d'Arenberg to display the famous red stripe was a Grenache wine, it has been a variety central to the estate portfolio ever since. During the 1980s, d'Arenberg resisted taking part in the great government sanctioned vine pull out scheme which proved to be disastrously short sighted and an assault on national treasure. Their faith in the wizzened old vines of McLaren Vale has bestowed upon d'Arenberg the accolade of Custodian.
Available by the dozen
Case of 12
$263.00
The finest small batch Grenache parcels are passed through a gentle Demoisy crusher, leaving many of the berries whole. Fruit is transferred to open fermenters where seeds and skins are permanently submerged beneath the free run juice. When tannin extraction is just right, Custodian is basket pressed and transferred to a mix of seasoned and new French and American oak barriques for completion of ferments and a course of malolactic. Components are matured nine months on lees to slow the ageing and keep the wine fresher while also reducing influence of oak. Chester and the team undertake an extensive barrel tasting to determine the final assemblage, to be bottled without fining or filtration.
Intensely coloured, cherry red hue. Black forest berries, woody spices and soil like notes slowly give way to brighter undertones of raspberry, blueberry and florals. The palate tells a slightly different story with a raft of red fruit characters such as raspberry and stewed rhubarb paired with an almost cranberry like acidity. The tannins are verging on gritty, in a tantalizing sense.
dArenberg
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dArenberg
The heart of McLaren Vale, past and present, d’Arenberg is one of the most significant wineries in Australia

In 1912 Joseph Osborn, a teetotaller and director of Thomas Hardy and Sons, purchased the well established Milton Vineyards of 25 hectares in the hills just north of the townships of Gloucester and Bellevue, now known as McLaren Vale. Joseph’s son Francis Ernest (‘Frank’) Osborn left medical school, choosing to forsake the scalpel for pruning shears. He soon increased the size of the vineyard to 78 hectares. Fruit was sold to local wineries until the construction of his own cellars was completed in 1928. Dry red table and fortified wines were produced in ever increasing quantities to supply the expanding markets of Europe.

dArenberg

In 1943 Frank’s son Francis d’Arenberg Osborn, universally known as d’Arry, returned from school, age 16, to help his ill father run the business, eventually assuming full management in 1957. In 1959 d’Arry decided to launch his own label d’Arenberg, named in honour of his mother, Frances Helena d’Arenberg.

It was a small and humble start but the wines gained immediate cult status amongst imbibers and judges. The 1968 Cabernet Sauvignon won the Jimmy Watson Trophy at the 1969 Royal Melbourne Wine Show and the 1967 Red Burgundy (Grenache based) was awarded 7 trophies and 29 gold medals in Australian capital city wine shows. By the 1970’s d’Arenberg wines had become very fashionable, having gained a significant national and international profile in less than 20 years.

Enter the fourth generation, d’Arry’s son Chester d’Arenberg Osborn. From a very early age Chester was focused on continuing his family’s winemaking tradition. While growing up on the family property he helped his father d’Arry in both the vineyards and the cellar floor during school semester breaks and Christmas holidays. After graduating from Roseworthy College and touring other Australian and European wine regions, Chester took over the reins as Chief Winemaker in 1984. He immediately set about returning the family’s vineyards to their traditional grape growing practices of minimal inputs and no fertilisation, cultivation and irrigation wherever possible, therefore achieving natural soil flavours with very low yields.

dArenberg

dArenberg is one of the last remaining wineries to basket press their wines. This gentle method of squeezing juice from the grape skins protects the delicate white grapes and is gentle in the process of extracting the flavour, colour and tannins from the reds. The winemaking processes of the past have been maintained, capturing the unique small-batch character of the wines and the true flavour of the McLaren Vale region. Parcels of fruit are kept separate from the time of harvesting, through fermentation, pressing and maturation. When it comes to the blending stage, the winemakers have a wealth of different components with which to create a given wine.

d’Arenberg’s art of being different extends to a range of fortified and dessert wines which hold legendary status worldwide, as well as operating d’Arry’s Verandah Restaurant, one of South Australia’s most loved and highly awarded restaurant, set on a picturesque hilltop adjoining the cellar door tasting room. The reds are still traditionally fermented with the grape skins (caps) submerged in open wax-lined concrete fermenters utilising the age-old technique of foot-treading. Chief Winemaker and Viticulturist Chester is also a bit of a dab hand at steel design - he designed and had built on site new steel fermenters to the exact specifications of the original concrete ones.

In June 2004 Chester’s father, d’Arry was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his contributions to the wine industry and to the McLaren Vale region. After more than 65 consecutive vintages d’Arry is very proud of his achievements in creating an internationally recognised wine brand commonly known as the ‘Red Stripe’ due to the distinctive diagonal red stripe that adorns the label.

dArenberg