South Australian Trip Report Part Three

Right, your pockets and had a week to recover since my last recommendations, so here are some of the best buys from the Barossa and Eden Valley that I found on my recent trip. Firstly, a few names of new wineries that you need to watch out for over the next few years.

Ross Estate was started by Darius Ross, a retired engineer, however he didn't anticipate his new hobby would take off at anything like the rate that he is currently experiencing. Rod Chapman makes the wines and Rod had many years experience as a senior wine maker at Penfolds. It is quite obvious that Rod really knows what he doing, letting the fruit speak for itself, and even in the extremely difficult 2000 vintage, he has produced some very credible wines. Without exception all wines I tasted were very well balanced and were reasonably refined, none of them were over the top in anyway shape or form. This is a winery that is going to do extremely well.

Next new find was Eden Springs which is a new winery that is located high in the Eden Valley just down the road from Mountadam. It's a single vineyard winery with vines that are up to 30 years old. In days gone by, all the grapes were sold to Mountadam but now, Eden Springs holds back some of the best grapes and the wine is made for them at Mountadam. Their maximum production will be a 1000 cases a year and they use French and American oak for the Shiraz, and entirely French oak for the Cabernet. The winery has now sold their entire supply of 1999 wines, but the 2,000 vintage is just about to be released, and this is another winery to watch in the future.

Now onto a couple of the best buys.

The Willows 1998 Shiraz - the nose was quite complex showing perfumed light violets with pepper and a hint and eucalyptus. The wine has a good mouth feel with smooth integrated tannins, balanced acid, strong and distinct fruit leading to a palate of rich pepper and a cherry finish. It's full bodied, with a solid structure leading to a longer lingering finish. It should peak in about three years and is rated as Recommended with **** for value.

The Willows 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon - lightly perfumed with raspberries and mint. Tannins are totally unobtrusive, the medium weight fruit is very pure leading to a palate of very sweet raspberries, redcurrant and a light chocolate finish. The wine has a refined structure, and a sophisticated complexity for the price. It's a lighter style of Barossa wine and Recommended with *** for value. It should peak in about two years. In time, I think the Cabernet will be better wine than the Shiraz.

Jacobs Creek Limited Release 1996 Shiraz Cabernet - the first release under the Jacobs Creek label of a super premium wine, a blend of 60% Shiraz and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon. The nose is dominated by pepper, liquorice, and mulberry. The palate is layered, sweet raspberries on the uptake, a heavy concentration of pepper in the middle coming back to sweet raspberries and touch and liquorice to finish, and what a long finish it is! The wine is full-bodied, with supple consistency, a layered structure, which combines to make a very complex and harmonious wine. It should peak in another four years and justly deserves an Outstanding rating with *** for value.

Cheers