Torbreck & Barossa Valley

The quality of Torbreck Vintners wines has never been in question.  Robert Parker calls them a "Top 100" winery.  If the travesty that is Yellowtail hadn't driven down the Australian wine business, Torbreck may have become a household name by now.  Maybe even like Beaucastel, their model in the southern Rhone Valley of France.  Torbreck really is that good.

Torbreck was established in 1994 but you could say it started more than a hundred fifty years earlier when many of its cornerstone Rhone varietals were first planted in the Barossa Valley.  With the oldest vineyards in Australia, Barossa is known for rich powerful structured reds with lengthy flavors.  Wines of this quality age gracefully.  The wines' velvety tannins are courtesy of Barossa's Mediterranean climate of a hot dry growing season stressing the vines before the diurnal temperature shift to coolness at night compensates for the heat.  This temperature shift is ideal for maintaining acidity in the grapes to prevent flabbiness in wine flavors.   

Torbreck markets two dozen different wines.  Most are reds; all are Rhone varietals.  The reds include Shiraz (of course), Grenache, Mataro, Counoise and Carignan.  The whites include Viognier, Marsanne, Roussanne and Semillon.  Like in the Rhone Valley, most Torbreck wines are blends.

Torbreck boasts of "estate winemaking" which is not the same as estate bottling, meaning everything is done on the property.  With long term management arrangements at high quality vineyards, what they call custodial care, they can secure the fruit that they need for their many premium wines.  In other words, they know what they're doing.

Runrig is Torbreck's flagship wine.  It's a Shiraz/Viognier blend likened to their northern Rhone model and yes, it commands a lofty price.  The two in the store right now are more grounded price-wise.  The Cuvee Juveniles is a Grenache, Mataro, Carignan, Counoise, Shiraz blend.  The Woodcutter's Semillon is an oak aged robust Madeira clone Semillon first planted in Barossa 160 years ago.  

If Rhone red blends or the white Semillon grape are new to you, here's your opportunity.  They're well worth a try.