Hand picked grapes off the estate Home Block on the eastern ridge of Barossa Valley, the frugal vines yield a meagre harvest of small berries exhibiting the most amazing concentration. Bunches are destemmed to fermenters and cold soaked for the magic of wild yeasts, several days of cool vinification are treated to hand plunges and rack returns until completely sugar dry. A good old fashioned basket press and ten weeks of malolactic are followed by twenty four months of age. Succulent tannins and enormous length, Barossa Shiraz that speaks of its provenance, of season and of place.

The founder was William John Seabrook, born of Tasmania to a family of builders, his thirst for wine drew him to Victoria where he learned the craft of the merchant and established W.J. Seabrook & Son in 1878. Parcels of Cabernet Sauvignon are crushed and destemmed to open top fermenters for a warmish vinification, aimed at extracting bright red fruit characters and a judicious measure of sweet berry tannins. Brambles and mulberry leap from the glass, aniseed and liquorice on waves of flavour, subtle oak and tactile structure, a soft, silky finish of astonishing length.

By one of the Barossa's most internationally renowned harbingers of fine Australian wine, a big hit in America for all the right reasons. Elegantly structured and seamless, the exploit of quality fruit and skilled winemaking. This vibrant, personable Shiraz is a true expression of Barossa generosity, gracefully endowed with an attractive full bodied palate, showing exceptional balance between quality new oak and judicious alcohol, ripe acids and layers of savoury fruit.

Growing just a short distance north of Lyndoch Township, the feted vines on Schild's Liebich and Angus Brae blocks are meticulously husbanded to fully exploit the bounty of influences offered by the exceptional terroir and clime. Each vintage, certain parcels emerge as the stars. The Schild team set aside the pick of harvest for a highly deferential treatment, a minimal movement of juices throughout the vinification, as truly great wine needs to be unperturbed in the making, a generous style of unsurpassable excellence, elegance and finesse.

One of the new world's most exclusive, ancient vineyard wines, awaited annually by the most discerning Shiraz enthusiasts around the globe. Only ever bottled in the finest vintages, fruit is sourced from the superior Ahrens Vineyard at Lyndoch and the historic Moorooroo site at Jacobs Creek, which for more than 120 years, ended up with Orlando. Moorooroo is made from the four remaining rows of the original William Jacob Shiraz plantings, saved from the government sponsored vine pull schemes of the 1980s by estate patriarch Ed Schild.

Grapes for the stately Moorooroo super premium Shiraz are sourced from the oldest commercial vineyard in Australia, the fruit of two centuries viticulture in the Hundred of Moorooroo, between Jacob’s Creek and North Para River. Planted just eleven years after the foundation of South Australia, the ancient Moorooroo rootstock yields a wine of rare complexity, very different to the modern style of Australian Shiraz. Old vines are also very low yielding, so the most that can ever be made of Moorooroo Shiraz is two hundred cases annually.

Schild is one of the most respected names in Barossa viticulture. Relative latecomers to the region, they established their plantings in 1952 after three decades of adversity in the Mallee. A careful selection of the ripest and plumpest Merlot grapes is harvested off the elite Schild estate Angas Brae property. Fully fragrant and juicy to the palate, Schild displays an abundance of rich fruit characters so essential of good Barossa Merlot. Rich in flavour yet elegant to the finish, a splendid Merlot that drinks beautifully and will compliment many different cuisines.

A baronial Barossa estate with a proud tradition of Australian agriculture which dates back to 1866, Schild have amassed a remarkable list of international awards for their stately wines. Their offerings are highly treasured by enthusiasts around the world. A dry grown, bush vine Grenache, Mourvedre Shiraz, from blocks averaging seventy years of age, precious old sites which are able to withstand wicked bursts of Barossa heat. The gnarled old vines are treated to meticulous viticultural management, yielding berries of outstanding quality.

From the warmer St Kitts, Milton Park and Kabininge vineyards, Sandpiper is made in the traditional way, by an award winning team with access to the Barossa's best Shiraz. Thorn-Clarke are highly specialised at maximising the quality of fruit off the healthiest vines, achieving wines with vibrant character. Ageing under fine oak has enhanced the palate and softened the tannins. The perfect accompaniement to stroganoff pie or slow roasted standing rib.

The award winning Thorn Clark winemaking team are always excited to see the freshly picked harvests of Merlot brought to their wineworks. Barossa makes outstanding Merlot wines and Thorn Clark retain the finest vineyards. Sandpiper is named after the migratory bird which visits the Thorn-Clarke's property every year from the northern hemisphere. A succession of inspiring vintage releases have claimed impressive accolades on the national wine show circuit.

Labelled for a remarkable migratory bird, which can be seen fossicking around the Thorn Clarke vineyards as it prepares to fly north, sometimes as far as Siberia, before the chill of winter shrouds the valley. Is the Barossa really that cold? Sandpiper represents a highly regional expression, showing the greener, slightly more vegetative qualities of temperate clime Cabernet Sauvignon. A long spell under a selection of tightly grained French oak barrels imparts liquorice characters over the essential Barossa dark chocolate and blackberry flavours.

A personal expression of the Barossa's fine Shiraz tradition, Saltram's The Eighth Maker is the embodiment of the proud winemaking heritage established by founder, William Salter, in 1859. The Eighth Maker is personal, intimate and an insight into Winemaker Nigel Dolan's journey for excellence. The Shiraz from this vintage was exceptional, the fruit displayed strong varietal fruit characters and pronounced aromatics with the finished wines having excellent palate length. The superb Eighth Maker, while drinking exceptionally well now will improve with cellaring.

Winner of the 2003 Jimmy Watson Trophy, the most hotly contested since the extraordinary 1998 vintage. Growing season 2002 produced some of the most spectacular wines in living memory. Temperatures were some of the coolest on record, allowing the old vines to slowly and steadily ripen some of the most intense, rich and well structured grapes ever harvested. Launched at a very special black tie dinner at Queen's Hall, Eighth Maker is brimming with complex fruit, spice and earth characters, a reflection of the unique soil profiles and age of vines.

Saltram No.1 is one of the nation's great icon reds, a powerful expression of Australian Shiraz. In 1859 William Salter cleared ten acres of land at his Mamre Brook homestead near Angaston in the Barossa and planted Shiraz. On March 20 1862, Saltram crushed its first grapes and produced 1800 gallons of a wine that was simply called No 1 Shiraz. For the next thirty years, successive vintages of No.1 performed brilliantly at Australian and International wine exhibitions. The secret to the success lies in a heritage of extraordinary old Barossa vineyards.

Richly stylized Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon, previously winner of the Stodart Trophy, made for many years by the family behind the illustrious Pepperjack. The story of this enduring wine dates back to 1844, when William Salter built a stone house for his family naming it Mamre Brook, after Abrahams spiritual home. The eminent Dolan family, twice Jimmy Watson winners, crafted many of Mamre Brook's most memorable vintages. A fully aromatic Cabernet, perfumed with new French vanilla oak, endowed by a cornucopia of ripely spiced berry flavours.

It's 7.00am, singing erupts from the impassioned crowd, Viva San Fermin! A rocket focuses everyone's attention, the bulls are on their way. The congregation begin to stampede, slow at first, now faster as the sound of hooves descend. It's a blur until the third rocket. Relief and celebration, the Encierro is over! Fruit is sourced from good growers in the western ranges of Barossa, through to the valley floor and into Penrice. A great range of aroma and flavour profiles are assembled into a stylish and engaging expression of new world Tempranillo.

A backbone of Christa Rolf and Heinrich vineyards Shiraz, assembled alongside five choice Barossa parcels, embellished by the inclusion of estate grown Mourvedre and Grenache. All batches are crushed as one, pumped over and traditionally worked throughout the course of open ferments, followed by a year in American and French oak hogsheads. Blood red, bramble berries and dark bitter chocolate, pepper and anise, seamless and sound, its generously proportioned palate, exquisitely balanced over a languid length of creamy, velvet tannins.

Rolf Binder's story begins in 1950 when his parents arrived from Austria and Hungary, part of the large influx of post war immigration. They worked the Victorian railways for three years and picked grapes in the Barossa, before acquiring an old winery on Langmeil Road in 1955. RHB is made in the way that Rolf's father enjoyed his wine, full bodied, opulent, the old world style of Aussie claret with solid tannins in support of powerful fruit. An extravagant two year term in French and American oak hogsheads, integrates RHB into a whole that's so much greater than the sum of parts.

Half Shiraz from the estate Stephanie vineyard, just adjacent the Rolf Binder wineworks. A third of Mourvedre, picked off a precious block of bush vine planted in the 1880s. The balance in Grenache from old Binder vines at Gomersal and Light Pass. A moreish medley of blue bramble, raspberries and chocolate box allsorts, underpinned by the savoury of smoked meats and simmering stockpot. Open fermented in the traditional old world style to deliciously dry, a salutory measure of subtle oak and kindly tannins in support of a lingering, chewy liquorice finish.

A rare and exclusive regional flagship, by one of the most peer respected winemakers in all Barossa Valley. Hanisch is nothing short of spectacular, harvested off the same rows of superior vine each year, its precious ferment of ten or so barrels, yielding just 250 dozen bottles of vintage. The superlative site was acquired from Punch Hanisch and added to Veritas Vineyard in 1968. The parcel was planted to vines by Binder father and son in 1972. By the mid 1980s, it was recognized that a small block of several long rows made an incredible Shiraz wine.

An enduring cult wine, originally vintaged in the 1960s, still hand crafted in small batches, from priceless pressings of century old Mourvedre bush vines. Veritas was a quaint but salubrious wineworks at Tanunda along Langmeil Road, The Rolf Binder headquartes for a half century, Veritas sired many of the Barossa's most memorable vintages. A judicious inclusion of estate Shiraz to the ancient bush vine Mourvedre contributes essential peppery spice, the affable earthyness of Barossa melty chocolate, plush tannin ripeness and sweet fleshy plum.

Exceptional Langtons Classification. From ancient Barossa vines up to 140 years of age.

Exceptional Langtons Classification. One of the Barossa's great arcane treasures, most of Rockford's limited production is cornered by its cult of local enthusiasts.

Exceptional Langtons Classification.

Some of the gnarled and twisted old vines which yield the grapes for Rockbare date back to the first days of Barossa settlement in the 1840s, when pioneers replanted their precious cuttings from Europe. Grenache is hand harvested, hand sorted and vinified to dryness over the course of a fortnight, basket pressed into seasoned French oak barriques for malolactic on lees. Vibrant, punchy and driven by red berry notes, fashioned to display fresh lively fruit character, textural complexity and a savoury finish on a fine length of malleable walnut tannins.

Tim Burvill became aware of precious old vineyards dotted around Barossa Valley while working for some of Australia's most prominent wineries. It is from these wonderfully diverse old sites that Burvill selects the ripest and most concentrated parcels to make Mojo. Burvill's wines are in keeping with his own personal power packed fruit driven style. The moderately continental Barossa climate provides ideal conditions for the production of full bodied reds. It is these unique growing conditions and the natural sunlight which Burvill captures in Mojo Shiraz.

RockBare was born out of a passion to make great wines out of the nation's most invaluable parcels of vine. The people of Rockbare work to a belief that wine should tell a story about the terroir whence it originates, that the vines deserve lots of love and care, that the winemaking process should be the subject of minimal handling to allow the vineyard to do what it does best. Perfumed of melty rich dark chocolate, the ripest blackberries and blue plum flavours will have you reaching for another glass before the first is even half gone, made for food, suitably attired alongside a smartly dressed lamb.

Tim Burvill worked at Wynns and Penfolds, where he refined his style alongside some of the best winemakers in the country. Establishing his own label, he embarked upon a secret project to acquire parcels of wayward Barossa Shiraz. With a backbone of fruit grown to some of the oldest sites in Australia, much of Barossa Babe comes off vines up to 140 years of age. The intense power and complexity of the primary fruit flavours are complimented by sweet oak and gripping solid tannins, culminating in a wine of extraordinary complexity and length.

A special wine from special places, mature vines yielding harvests of fruit endowed with complexity and great depth of flavour are the key criteria for inclusion into this limited release Barossa Shiraz. Richmond Grove adhere to a straight forward philosophy of sourcing rich, powerful wines from exceptional vineyards and maturing them under the highest quality oak. A splendid Shiraz of unmistakable regional character and charm, lined with swiss cocolate tannins and brimming with a halo of bright Barossa fruit, a wine of complexity, structure and grace.

Full bodied, brimming with the superb flavour, fine textures and sound structure of truly grand Barossa Shiraz. Parcels are picked off dedicated grower vineyards around the ancient hamlets of northwest precincts, Moppa and Greenock, Stonewell and Belvedere, Seppeltsfield, Ebeneezer and Koonunga. Gullies and higher altitudes, steep hills, slopes and undulations make for an extraordinary variance of topographies, each a unique vineyard for the realization of harvests, articulating an individual expression of soil, terroir and clime.

The five most most exclusive parcels of old vine Shiraz, a secret component of the Barossa's most memorable vintages, hand picked off the De Fazio and Hillview vineyards at Belvidere and Moppa. Batches are crushed into traditional open top fermenters for a week of pumpovers, gently pressed into an extravagantly high proportion of new French oak hogsheads for two years maturation, followed by the final assemblage, unfiltered and unfined. Magenta black, powerful and intense, bramble berries and savoury cedar oak, licorice and dried fig, a mere two hundred cases are made.

A compilation of parcels, hand picked off a coterie of superior, low yielding blocks at the northwest precincts of Barossa Valley. Some of the growers have been at the centre of Barossa viticulture since early settlement, several generations later, they continue to husband some of the oldest Shiraz vines in the world. A princely harvest of ancient clones is treated to the traditional old world regimens of open ferments, pumpover and basket press, followed by fill into a luxuriously high proportion of new French and American oak hogsheads for two years maturation. A mere two hundred cases are made.

The story of Stonewell began when Peter Lehmann decided to make a special Shiraz of immense intensity and muscularity that would demand time in the barrel and bottle before release, named after the district that best showed the characters he admired most in Barossa Shiraz.

Stonewell is the very best of vintage, one of the new world's great Shiraz. A powerful, stately wine, Stonewell is the jewel in the crown of Peter Lehmann's most spectacular efforts, the grapes are drawn from the lowest yielding, old vine blocks in all Barossa Valley. Some planted well over a century ago, produce frugal bunches with parched berries, precious little black gems which are at the heart of Stonewell Shiraz. A wine of great intensity and refined muscularity, which demands time under the Lehmann estate cellars before release.

The Cabernet Sauvignon of great Barossa vineyards have received iconic praise from the international wine press since the 1970s, Peter Lehmann is recognised as one of Australia's finest, Robert Parker has called it the world's best Cabernet value. Vintage 1993 won Best Cabernet in the World at the London International. Every year, Peter Lehmann assembles harvests from choice sites into a profoundly structured wine of dark, chocolate berry perfumes and generously flavoured palate, supported by tasteful oak and exquisitely balanced tannins.

The Peter Lehmann team can be proud of a long and illustrious history with Barossa Shiraz. An international success story in its own right, Peter Lehmann's foundation wine is highly regarded everywhere, a Shiraz offering great depth of flavour, character and charm. Peter Lehmann once said, only half jokingly, that when God created Shiraz, he did so with the Barossa in mind! Praised by the industry press for representing the best value in Shiraz year in and year out, a generous wine of intense fruit flavours mellowed to a soft finish by maturation in small format oak.

For his style, integrity and skill as a professional and artisan, Peter Lehmann has come to be known as Mentor by many of Australia's eminent winemakers. His conviction that the Barossa was capable of making the best wines in the world extended far beyond Shiraz, he always called it the Garden of Eden, a winemaker's paradise. When it came to selecting a wine to dedicate to Peter Lehmann, it was not without a sense of irony that the choice should be Barossa Cabernet. Each year, the best of vintage is fashioned into a wine of great distinction.