Country : Australia
Region : Barossa Valley, South Australia
Style : Red Wine
Grape : Shiraz
Volume : 750 ml
Alcohol : 14.5%
About the Vineyard
Smalltown Vineyards express many of the Barossa’s prized districts form Gomersal, Kalimna as well as the Eden Valley and beyond. They work with exceptional vineyards that simply expressed using minimal intervention, basket press where relevant, and natural ferments in open top fermenters, striving to best capture all of the Barossa’s magical flavors.
About the Wine
The Smalltown block was purchased in 2016, which consisted of 40 hectares of 28-year-old Shiraz and Cabernet in the premium Ebenezer District of the Barossa Valley. This Shiraz is sourced from the finest available vineyard sites across the premium Northern Barossa Valley. Coming from 5 different growers, including a small amount of Eden Valley Shiraz and 3% Grenache. Aged in a variety of French and American oak barrels different ages and sizes, such a good vintage that the new oak percentage is a little higher than normal, around 30%. It spends the usual 22 months in oak with the barrels swapped around.
Regards to the label, the winemaking team love a bit of superstition... and to 'knock knock' on wood is a well-known method of keeping your luck from going bad, to ward of unlucky consequences, protection against evil, or attracting good luck. There's no evil in this classic wooded style Barossa Shiraz... you're in luck with this pure Aussie wine.
Details from Kate Burgess (Boutinot International)
Tom White has been making wine since 2002, making wine for his family’s winery in the Adelaide Hills, where he made Shiraz, Cabernet, Merlot, Semillon and Chardonnay. Tom then established his own contract winemaking business in 2008 and made wine all over South Australia in the Clare Valley, McLaren Vale, Riverland and, of course, the Barossa Valley where Tom finally put down some roots. In 2012 Tom purchased a vineyard in Marananga, a small town nestled in the heart of the Barossa between Seppeltsfield, Greenock and Stonewell making the wine at Rolf Binder the Winery before Tom’s own winery The Curator Wine Company began operating in 2020. Tom’s focus on special sites, basket presses, natural ferments, minimal intervention, indeed as little work as possible dovetails neatly with Smalltown’s existing philosophy of lazy, feet-up winemaking and Rolf ’s established practices.
Happily in January 2022 Rolf Binder the Human donned his winemaker’s stubbies once more and is now working with Tom at The Curator Wine Co on our very own Smalltown Vineyards! Yay! Rolf ’s sister Christa is still hugely involved in the Riesling and Chardonnay whilst Rolf tinkers with the reds whilst Tom runs the show. We will continue to evolve the Smalltown Vineyards range and labels to reflect the specific strengths and passions of this new partnership. There are some great old vineyards new to us this year to exploit as well as the ongoing wealth of experience, joy and handsomeness that Rolf and Christa bring to Tom’s contemporary winery.
Tasting Note
Blockbuster Barossa Shiraz with great depth and character. Typical deep colour, dense sweet black berry fruits on the nose, has a lovely savoury almost meaty character with hints of black pepper, meat and oak. Bright, juicy and fresh on the palate - really typical of the vintage. Black cherry and plum with a meaty savouriness, the long aging in oak means it's really well integrated and allows the fruit to shine. Long and rich with good acidity, and toasty oak on the finish. Drinking well now, beneath the ripe fruit is good structure and should you wish this will age really well for a decade.
Food Pairing
Food matching is easy, just buy some quality red meat, don't mess with it and enjoy a perfect marriage.
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