At a time when the government was paying growers to pull vines in an attempt to curtail the oversupply of grapes, David Clarke was working against trend, testing soils and buying land, under car headlights to avoid local farmer suspicion, with the intention of establishing the finest Barossa vineyards. Thorn-Clarke Quartage is a complex yet seamless cepage, Cabernet Sauvignon and Franc provide wonderful upfront berry fruit characters, Malbec contributes suppleness, an eighth of Petit Verdot adds depth of flavour and intensity.

Thorn-Clark nurture some of the Eden Valley's best Pinot Gris vines. Barrel fermented, richer and fuller than most Pinot Gris, currently only produced in very small quantities, an extended period on lees has brought savouryness and round, mouth filling body.

The five Bordeaux varietals of Cabernet Sauvignon and Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot and Merlot, a multi award winner. Seamless yet deeply complex, fashioned from the pick of Barossa fruit, there is awesome length to Quartage, as its cornucoppia of berry fruit flavours unravel over a framework of fine grain tannins and spicy lingering oak. Internationally renowned, Shotfire has one key goal, to satisfy red wine enthusiasts by over delivering on quality.

A delicately oaked Eden Valley Chardonnay, produced in small quantities by one of the Barossa'a great winemaking dynasties. Barrel aged, it sees an extended period on lees to give a more savoury flavour, achieving a round, voluptuous body.

A hand made Methode Traditionelle from parcels planted to superior terroirs on the slow ripening altitudes of Valley Eden. Vineyards were specially selected to grow the perfect fruit for this exquisite style of sparkling Pinot Chardonnay. Grapes are picked throughout the chill of night and barrel aged for six months on lees to infuse and enhance the magnificent depth of slowly ripened Eden Valley Pinot Noir complexity.

Thomas Hardy was a visionary who embarked upon a journey to deliver a dependable range of the highest quality table wines to the nascent Australian market. He established his brand in the 1850s, at a time when most of his contemporaries were struggling to produce a wine which would appeal to the Australian palate. The Hardy company of today still retain some of the finest viticultural assets in the nation, the princelings of Coonawarra plantings are set aside in the most outstanding vintages, to be crafted into the national icon Thomas Hardy Cabernet.

From three old, dry grown bush blocks at Blewitt Springs, planted to a benignant terroir of deep ironstone sands. Parcels are separately picked at ideal ripeness, crushed and treated to a measure of whole bunch or wild yeast ferments, regularly hand plunged in a mix of concrete vats and open vessels, followed by a course of age in seasoned oak puncheons. So very redolent of wild cherry, violets, rosemary and spice, its polished, multi layered palate, lined of loquacious, liquorice tanins, textural towards a lengthy aromatic finish.

Thistledown make Grenache with a view to maximising purity of expression, the fruit must be articulate, the finished wine textural and refined. Grenache is collated from some of the finest bush vines in McLaren Vale, an auspicious tally of sites planted to rich mineral soils. Grapes are all hand picked, a third of the harvest is retained as whole bunches. A natural wild yeast ferment is treated to frequent hand plunges until complete dryness. Ten months in well seasoned oak hogsheads achieves a delicious Grenache wine, perfumed, velvet textured and beguiling.

At the Seaview end of Chapel Hill Road, a perfunctory passerine perched her pincers astride a pair of power lines and set herself ablaze. Down she went amongst the dry grown branches of an old Grenache vineyard, setting the valuable veterans alight. The scorched site eventually became part of the Thistledown portfolio, its wizzened old vines make an alluringly perfumed wine that's evocative of florals, petals and pretty Pinot freshness. Cranberries, spices and ripe wild cherry combine with silken textures to define a beautifully elegant Grenache wine.

There's no better grape for Rose than the gorgeous, garrulous Grenache. Thistledown have found a blissful block of old Grenache vines. Grapes are all hand picked, destemmed and gently crushed for a course of several hours on skins to extract just the right hues of bawdy pink. A long cool ferment preserves the complex fruit characters and infuses enticing herbal notes into the crisp mineral palate. Beautifully salmon pink in colour, her playful perfumes and undulating textures are supported by juicy orange tang and pursing, rosehip tannins.

Fully organic fruit, coddled clones of the unique Grenache Blanc, all hand picked and whole bunch pressed for a wild indigenous yeast vinification in a mix of seasoned French oak barrels and traditional concrete fermenters. Batches are rested on sediments for several months, building texture and infusing complexity. Grenache Blanc is distinctive for its full flavoured palate, its bright, tangy citrus fruits are drizzled with honeysuckle and lemon balm. Vigorous and suave, a creamy, mouth filling wine of character, intensity and charm.

A pure Grenache wine, crafted from the fruit of some wonderful old sites, hand made in the traditional small batch way. This is Thistledown Grenache No1. Grapes are picked off a number of blocks in the Riverland and McLaren Vale, venerable old vineyards and choice parcels of dry grown bush vine fruit. All are separately vinified in small batches through the action of wild ferments. Whole bunch inclusions and larger format oak achieve a beautifully layered, textural palate, lead by its strawberry and wild spice perfumes, hedonistically bottled unfiltered and unfined.

From the Redman family's forty year old vineyards in the heart of Coonawarra, the most superior parcels each year yield a vintage of just eight oak hogsheads. Bill Redman's consuming passion was to make good red wine. His faith in Coonawarra Terra rossa as a world class winegrowing region was vindicated in 1936 when Redman Claret won the London Empire Wine Show. The best barrels are identified and assembled into the final Redman for a term in oak and a decade of repose in bottle under the estate cellars. A mere 200 dozen are made.

The initial release of Riebke Ebenezer was conceived during an economic decline in Barossa Valley. The Riebke family were being paid very little for their Shiraz and asked Teusner if he was on the market for quality fruit. Teusner agreed to produce a wine but made no promises, as they hadn't even seen the harvest. The epiphany occurred as soon as fermentations began and the winemakers knew that they had come across something very special indeed. A tip of the hat to the Riebke brothers, whose vineyards play the essential role in the wines of Teusner.

In the wonderful wide world of wine, you will find over sixty aliases for Mataro. Mourvedre from the Cotes du Rhône and the Spanish Monastrell are amongst the most familiar, as well as lesser known pseudonyms such as Balzac and Esparte. Custodians of the finest parcels of Barossa Mataro, the house of Teusner are Australia's most accomplished purveyors of this complex and engaging, esoteric varietal. Teusner's favourite by far is the French construct known as estrangle chien, the dog strangler, due to its bestial tannins.

Half Grenache with the balance of Shiraz and Mourvedre, grown to some fantastic old vine stock, most are a century of age, treated to a spell in well seasoned barrels. The oak influence is minimal, serving to complex and mature the wine rather than to impart flavour. So marked must be the profile of fruit to make the cut for Avatar, that initial classification of the components takes place immediately after vintage. Well balanced and round, a wine of earthy, savoury complexity, displaying ripe fleshy fruits, bramble and licorice spice.

Albert is the namesake of Teusner's grandfather, commemorated for his tireless hard work and commitment. Albert is sourced from two small blocks of low yielding unirrigated vines, aged between fifty and a hundred years, one precious site in the Barossa's north at Ebenezer and the other, near the valley's southern most parts at Williamstown. Pure and expressive, displaying the power, elegance and generosity of splendid old vines Shiraz, Albert is a joy to drink now and will continue to evolve magical Barossa richness.

An assemblage of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from three superior estate vineyards in Piccadilly Valley. Terre a Terre take a decidedly artisanal approach to Rosé, setting aside parcels of fruit, which exhibit the interest and complexity for an engagingly blush coloured wine, as influenced by the old world techniques of Sancerre and Bandol. Batches are whole bunch pressed into seasoned oak barriques for vinification and a course of maturation on gross sedimentery lees. Its comely Rosé de Provence hues presage an exquisite palate of fragrant summer berry characters and mouth wateringly, crisp saline minerality.

A matrimony between two illustrious winemaking families, Croser and Bizot, a pact between people of passion who know their Pinot Noir and take an artisanal, no expense spared approach. The east facing slope of Heysen Vineyard in Piccadilly Valley, populated with the meticulously husbanded Pommard clone, is closely cropped and rigorously thinned to optimize excellence of the harvest while reducing yields. Parcels of hand picked fruit are pressed into traditional one tonnes open top fermenters, followed by a course of age in an extravagantly high proportion of new French oak barrels.

Crayeres is a site of great peerage, adjacant to the highly distinguished Tapanappa Vineyard at Wrattonbully, uncannily akin geologically to the chalk escarpments which are the dominant terroir under the great slopes of Champagne. Parcels of hand picked Shiraz and a measure of contiguous Cabernet Franc, are filled to one tonnes Potter vessels for maceration and co vinification, a course of ten months in a luxuriously high proportion of new French oak, followed by eighteen months in well seasoned oak foudres. Blackberry and liquorice throughout, peppery and piquantly spiced, big boned Shiraz of immeasurable length.

There's more to the spectacular Terra rosa top soils of Crayeres Vineyard than meets the eye, the propitious limestone strata beneath are being researched by the University of Adelaide for a priceless legacy of ancient fossils. Bunches of Cabernet Franc are picked at optimal ripeness and treated to open top fermenters, hand plunged and pressed off after three weeks into a mix of new and seasoned French oak, for an extravagant twenty eight months of age. Defined by varietal black currants and licorice berry jube, soft velvety tannins in support of the fragrant violet bouquet.

Sauvignon Blanc in the way of the full bodied, ageworthy efforts from Bordeaux and Sancerre. Oak treatments and a judicious term of age build palate texture, while encouraging mouthfilling savouryness and sublime sauvage. Grapes are all hand picked and whole bunch pressed into four 600 litres, Rhône styled oak fermenting vats for ten days vinification and ten months on sediments, treated to the occasional lees stirring battonage before bottling in January. The big boned, well fleshed genre of Sauvignon Blanc which unlocks the fruity exterior and reveals the cornucopia of complexity within.

A pure, additives free, non preservatives Verdelho wine from one of the most inscrutably managed vineyards in Langhorne Creek. Temple Bruer have long held to the philosophy that responsible farmers should aim to minimise chemical inputs into our environment. This philosophy was put into practice in the early 1990s, when conversion to fully certified organic grapegrowing practices commenced. Temple Bruer prepare their own compost, a hundred tonnes each year, made from grape seeds and skins, grass, hay and yeast lees from the fermentations.

You can be sure if it's Temple Bruer, fashioned from harvests of the healthiest, cleanest fruit, grown to a fully Certified Organic vineyard in the premier viticultural precinct of Langhorne Creek. Treated to the good old fashioned vinification process of open ferments and frquent pumpovers, completion of malolactic and a term in American oak to soften the palate and tame the tannins, without the addition of sulphur or preservatives. Take your Temple along to a luncheon of kipfler, shitake and good beef.

The most accomplished winemakers assert that Pinot Noir is the grape and wine which speak most lucidly of the terroir whence they came. No other varietal is so articulate of its origin, the healthiest, most biodynamically balanced soils yield the most eloquent Pinot wines. Temple Bruer encourage their Eden Valley fruit to complete physiological ripeness, for the realization of the most engaging wines, patiently hand crafted and aged without the inclusion of irritating preservatives. The Pinot Noir of choice to match with cherry glazed duckling or tuna tartare.

A passionate, family owned and operated winery who've been rewarded with highly coveted Royal Melbourne Gold for their impressive Langhorne Creek reds. Temple Bruer have been waving the magic wand with their brilliant efforts at Merlot, scoring further medals at the Small Winemakers and Rutherglen Wine Shows. A closely managed vineyard certified by Biological Famers of Australia, the entire team at Temple Bruer possess a great knowledge and enthusiasm for completely organic, no additives, preservatives free wine.

It was the great Cabernet wines of Bordeaux which inspired Bill Taylor to diversify from imports and retail into the highly fraught pursuit of grape growing. An ardent enthusiast of Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Taylor had a keen enough palate and nose to determine that the most auspicious lands for Cabernet Sauvignon were amongst the idyllic rolling pastorals of Valley Clare. Selected on the basis of opulence and intensity, velvet tannins and heady perfumes, the most sensational pickings from the finest vintages are set aside for inclusion into the stately and magnificent, Visionary Cabernet Sauvignon.

St Andrew is the flagship of ultra premium editions by Taylor, a benchmark Clare Valley effort, vinified from Shiraz grown to a distinguished old site. It represents the very best from the Taylor family estate and continues the St Andrews legacy of transcendent, first growth Australian wine, a tradition which dates back to the inaugural vintage of 1892. A true labour of love, painstakingly hand crafted from grapes grown to a historic vineyard. A generously proportioned yet elegant wine, Clare Valley Shiraz at its stellar finest.

Clare Valley regularly sets the benchmark in new world Riesling, St Andrews are crafted from fruit grown to an elite tally of distinguished blocks, established 1892 on the most splendid terroirs amongst the rolling pastoral idylls of Valley Clare. Only ever assembled and released out of the finest vintages, it remains essential to pick and gently crush the fruit within fifteen minutes. Refined, tightly focused, a sublime Riesling of astounding balance, its flow of lemons and lime over a seamless spine of natural acidity, resolves on a finish of extraordinary length.

The zenith in Clare Valley Chardonnay, St Andrews are a true labour of love for the Taylor family, sourced from an historical property adjacent to the estate wineworks. St Andrews continue to attract an impressive array of international awards and recognition for their outstanding quality. Parcels of French Bernard clone Chardonnay are selectively hand picked off the distinguished Angela block G30 and Victoria block V20, carefully sorted and gently pressed into the extravagance of new Louis Latour French oak for an opulent barrel ferment and course of age.

Next door to the Taylor estate was a sleepy winery originally founded in 1896, one of the first in the Valley, it had not been operational since 1934. In 1995 Taylor acquired the property and set about the task of recreating history with the re-issue of the timeless St. Andrew. Australia's most enduring flagship Cabernet Sauvignon, with a history of awards at prestigious international competitions including Concours de Mondial Bruxelles, St Andrew continues to attract international acclaim by virtue of its peerless quality of fruit and artisanal winemaking.

Fine wine enthusiasts know that they can trust Taylor to deliver superb quality table wines year after year. The dedicated family of eminent Clare Valley winemakers spare no expense or effort to make it happen. Promised Land is build around a backbone of estate grown fruit, vinified to a refreshing modern style with soild structure and excellent palate weight. The pure lifted Chardonnay chic, without the influence of oak, are perfect to enjoy alongside good food and cheery company.

The Taylors still refer to their original vineyard property as Promised Land, due to the fulfilled promise of its rich fertile soils. Made to a fashion that's universally appealing, with a hallmark of quality that's unmistakable, Promised Land delivers a rich Shiraz Cabernet wine with great mid palate presence, generous fruit and gentle tannins, skillfully assembled into a satisfying claret style red. Whether relaxing at home or dining out, Promised Land can be enjoyed immediately upon release and is the perfect wine for every occasion.

Taylors make reference to the promise of the land, rich fertile soils and hospitable climes from which to source the finest fruit. The Promised Land range is crafted around a backbone of grapes grown to the Taylor's Clare Valley estate vineyard, supported by choice parcels collated from the premier viticultural precincts of South Australia. A soft and fleshy Shiraz boasting a lively palate of juicy red berries, plums and spice, along with subtle chocolate and savoury from a touch of oak.