A Barossa Beauty - The Chookshed from Rusden Vineyards

Having done that fantastic tasting with La Rioja Alta, it's time to head back down under to the southern hemisphere, and review an old vintage from Rusden Vineyards that had been given to me by a friend.

In 1979 Christine and Dennis Canute bought 40 acres of run down vineyards right in the heart of the Barossa, initially as a hobby farm with plenty of room the kids to run free around. Believing in the quality of the fruit they were growing Dennis and his friend Russell decided to make a barrel of Cabernet Sauvignon, that was not just good enough for personnel consumption, but good enough to put a label on it. This was 1992 and Rusden (the amalgamation of Russell and Dennis) was born.

In 1997 they bought 5 second hand barriques and started to experiment with Shiraz, Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon keeping the pressings and free run juice separate to see the different maturation of each wine in different styles of oak. 1998 saw them make them make their first commercial wine from Chenin Blanc crushing 7.5 tonnes of grapes grown on their estate, 1999 saw them crush 10 tonnes of fruit including from red varieties such as Shiraz, Zinfandel and Mataro. Today the estate is still family owned and crush between 80 - 100 tonnes of fruit to produce wines from fuit that is all grown on the estate.

The bottle I was given was a 2005 Chookshed Zinfandel, I've not seen any Zinfandel produced in Australia before, you tend to see it mainly from America or Italy where it goes under it's other name Primitivo, but where ever it comes from it is a grape I adore. After having a quick read of the back label, the first thing I noticed was the 16.5% vol, now this got me a little worried and a little intrigued as to how this would work.

In the glass it had an opaque red/purple colour with wonderfully pronounced aromas of sweet/jammy fruit and spice, on the palate you got lashings of juicy, jammy dark fruit that was inter laced with sweet spice of Liquorice, Clove and Cinnamon. The tannins were soft and juicy, not that their was left, and you got just a touch of acidity that all combined perfectly, you also didn't notice that it was 16.5% which amazed me, I was expecting to really feel it on the back of my throat.

Unfortunately you can't get hold of this vintage any more, unless some merchant has a case or two squirrelled away at the back of cellar, but if you spot another vintage I'd definitely grab a bottle and give it a go.

A Directors Cut with a Difference from Heartland

After starting in New Zealand it's time to cross over the Tasman Sea to South Australia, and pay a visit to Langhorne Creek and stop by Heartland wines.

Wine growing in the Langhorne Creek region of South Australia dates back as far as 1850, and was originally a watering stop and then a cattle stop for drovers moving cattle across the country. It got it's name from two drovers, Alfred and Henry Langhorne who settled there to raise cattle, and then later discover it's potential for growing grapes.

Moving forward to today, and three more people have discovered the delights of wines from Langhorne Creek and teamed up together. Grant Tilbrook, who has consulted all across the Australian wine trade for many years and Scott Collett who has run the family wine business in McLaren Vale since 1982 have teamed up with young Australian winemaker Ben Glaetzer, who has known of the potential of Langhorne Creek for a long time from his uncle John, who has over 40 years of wine making experience and won a prestigious four Jimmy Watson trophies.

Langhorne Creek is situated about 80 kilometres south-east of Adelaide and founded on the broad flood plains influenced by the local Bremer and Angas rivers which are dominated by the magnificent River Red Gums, then running down to the nearby Lake Alexandrina. It has a markedly cooler climate than many of it's neighbouring regions, this is partly down to what the locals call the lake doctor, these are the winds coming off the nearby Lake. These winds have a cooling effect on the summer sun and help to ward against pests and damaging winter frosts, but the difference to the climate is quite dramatic.

The grapes are transported over a hundred kilometres to Barossa Vintners in Tanunda which is where Ben makes and matures his wines at his state of the art winery, and where he makes the 2010 Directors Cut Shiraz. All the grapes come from the Langhorne Creek region and are picked at night and crushed in small open top stainless steel fermenter's where it is allowed 24 of skin contact before the fermentation is started. It then go's through eight days of cool fermentation with three daily hand plunges before being placed in American and French Oak Hogheads for 14 months ageing before release.

In the glass, you got this wonderfully deep, almost opaque inky purple colour, with pronounced aromas of dark fruit, cassis and cherries followed by gentle sweet spices of liquorice and vanilla with a hint of pepper. On the palate these all came through with amazing depth of flavour on the fruit and beautiful integration with the spice that just lingered in your mouth for ages. To go along with all the fruit and spice you had plenty of fine juicy tannins and a balanced acidity that made your mouth water just enough to help wash the flavours around your palate.

I've been a fan of Ben's wines since I was introduced to them a couple of years ago, and they just keep getting better with every vintage, and this one certainly didn't disappoint. It was just an absolutely stunning glass of wine which will on;y get better with time, and for me was what a proper Aussie Shiraz should be. It Is one that I'd say every time you saw a bottle, you should buy it.