Teusner The Wark Family Shiraz 2015

Teusner Wines came into being late in 2001 when Kym Teusner witnessed a conversation between his girlfriend’s uncle and his brother. They were discussing the viability of an old Grenache vineyard, planted in the Northern Barossa Valley by their grandfather. The low yields and low prices being paid by the ‘Big Boys’ meant that the vineyard was running at a loss and was facing certain destruction! Kym was loath to hear this and approached his brother in law, now business partner, to see if they could scratch together enough cash to keep these gnarled old vines in the ground. In that first year they raised enough capital for only about a quarter of the fruit from that vineyard, but this was enough for the Riebke brothers to stall their plans for these precious old vines. They were aware of a few other old blocks that fruit could be sourced from, if required, and made the first release with 165 cases of 2002 Joshua. In addition to this about 8 hogsheads of Grenache, Mataro and Shiraz was put aside, destined to be released around 24 months later as Avatar.

Our philosophy is to produce only exceptional, affordable wines by being very selective about the fruit that we source from old, well maintained vineyards. These vineyards reliably produce balanced, complex fruit which we guide, with minimal inputs, into wine. Our fruit sources are predominantly family and close friends, which allows us this selectivity in which fruit we vinify.

“One of the reasons I love the Barossa…and why it can claim to be ‘sacred
Shiraz ground’…is the diversity of the vineyard landscape which allows us to
produce so many different expressions of Shiraz from the one region.
There’s been plenty of talk in recent years about classifying the various sub
regions and I have my own views as to which are the best for Shiraz. The
deep sandy soils of Ebenezer, the dry, lean and cooler conditions of the
Eden Valley and the low yielding, rocky brown soils of Stonewell to the east
of Tanunda would be my picks if anyone was to ask.

The Wark Family have been growing Shiraz at Stonewell since they planted
their vineyard on their farm in 1995. They grow fantastic Barossa Shiraz, and
each vintage for the past few years we’ve been taking a bit more of their
fruit. In 2013, we released the first ‘Wark Family Shiraz made solely from
fruit grown in their vineyard, with a label painted by artist and now vineyard
owner Marnie Wark. The third release from the 2015 vintage continues the
tradition of deeply coloured, rich, black fruited wines with ferrous ripe
tannins to match.- Kym Teusner