TASTINGS ... with David Bray
The bluestone and brick chateau was the biggest building in South Australia when it opened in 1890, and the largest winery in the southern hemisphere. It was owned by Adelaide Wine Co, later called the Château Tanunda Wine Co. It was Seppelts for those of us who were involved with wine when things began to move along. Had been since 1916.
A big, solid Barossa building bursting with history and some great wines. In time, Seppelt went to Penfolds and then on to Southcorp. In 1998 John Geber, a very successful South African-born international entrepreneur, in the Barossa on wine business, chanced upon the building and snapped it up. It was, according to The Adelaide Review, “an abandoned ship in a sea of concrete, boarded up and broken down.
The chateau no longer made wine, just stored it”. Mr Geber’s family had planted grapes in South Africa’s Cape Province in 1809. His mother was of aristocratic though not wealthy lineage, related to the Sackville-Wests. “Very steeped in very strong French-English heritage,” he told the Review, “so I knew about all the old stuff, chateaux and estates.”
What’s more he had good money and went about spending quite a lot of it. Today the property is a spectacular complex of function centre, first-class winery, croquet green and a cricket oval overlooking the vineyards and ranges, reckoned to be one of the most spectacular grounds in the world with three “world class test strips’’.
Just to round things off, a Wine Train used to run between Adelaide and Tanunda but hasn’t done so for some time. Mr Geber owns it now and is working on getting it running again next year.
What brings all this to my notice and yours is a nice neat range of good, well-priced wines under The Tower label. The Chateau’s wines come at four levels, Limited Release (pricey, as you might imagine), Chateau, Grand Barossa and Barossa Tower.
The company word is that its top of the range wines are uncrushed, basket-pressed and unfiltered.... “made with minimal intervention to allow the true character of the grapes to express themselves. The combination of traditional methods with the best technology creates an elegance and softness in the wines’’.
The Château sources fruit parcels from its own vineyards on the estate as well as fruit parcels from old Barossa vineyards, for which the region is respected and renowned. This focus restores the links between Château Tanunda and the grape-growing families of the Barossa – a partnership which goes back over one hundred years.
“Some of our small fruit sources are quite unique with three parcels over 100 years old”. The Barossa Tower is described as a larger and more accessible range: “The wines are filtered and are high quality wines with fruit notes and a restrained easy drinking’’.
So here they are: Barossa Tower moscato 2010 is light, fresh, slightly fizzy and a touch sweet, likely to be a very popular aperitif. Likely price around $15.
Barossa Tower pinot grigio 2010 is from nearby Eden Valley cool and clean, bright, crisp and generously flavoured. This reporter likes it a lot. $15.
Barossa Tower shiraz 2009 used grapes comes from four local vineyards as well as Tanunda’s Cricket Block to create the house style Barossa shiraz – lifted aromas of blackberry, plum and black pepper accompanied by spicy dark berry fruits on the palate. $18.
Barossa Tower cabernet merlot 2008 also used fruit from five different Eden Valley and Barossa vineyards again to produce the house style of lifted aromas of black cherry, blackcurrent and plum with chocolate and dark berry fruits on the palate. $18.
It’s great to see and taste such good things coming from an almost-lost part of our wine history.
