Wine
Chateau Tanunda - Special Flavours and Special Sites
Discover the surprising diversity of Barossan Shiraz with Château Tanunda and its terroirs of the Barossa Range.
Rich soils. Century-old vines, and Shiraz to die for… when it comes to Australian wine regions, few resonate in the imagination quite like the mighty Barossa, and its region-variety specialty, Shiraz.
Yet the one-size-fits-all perception of Barossan Shiraz is increasingly a thing of the past. Today, a more nuanced understanding and appreciation of the region’s diverse terroir is coming to dominate, in large part thanks to the efforts of one of its longest-standing icons – Château Tanunda – and its Terroirs of the Barossa range.
“We see Terroirs as a gateway through which people can get closer to the Barossa and truly understand how its sub-regions drive and define the overall flavour of the Barossa,” says Château Tanunda’s Chief Winemaker, Neville Rowe. “A journey through the Terroirs is a lesson in the Barossa’s versatility.”
Indeed, it’s an invitation to develop a more comprehensive understanding of just what makes the Barossa so revered, one gladly worth accepting.
Château Tanunda Chief Winemaker Neville Rowe.
The Terroirs of the Barossa range in all its glory.
Spectrums of the sublime
Across four unique Shiraz expressions, the range introduces wine lovers to four key sub-regions (or ‘Parishes') of the Barossa GI Zone – Eden Valley, Marananga, Greenock, and Ebenezer – and does so in inimitable style, highlighting the diversity of conditions in the broader region.
“Take Eden Valley,” says Rowe, referring to the Eden Valley Shiraz that is part of the range. “With its higher altitudes, ancient soils and cooler temperatures, it creates a distinct style that tends towards Syrah at times. Slatey minerality, with complex peat and tar characters, perfumed blackcurrant fruits and Morello cherry notes that are classically Eden Valley and silky, flowing tannins.”
Marananga’s red-brown clay soils and limestone schists, on the other hand, in the Barossa’s northwestern quadrant, result in something quite different: ripe, mulberry flavours, dark chocolate complexity, and often high notes of garden herbs. “The Marananga Shiraz contains fine, supple tannins that develop into an unctuous texture reminiscent of nougat,” says Rowe. “Deeply flavoured, but powerful, with excellent balance and undercurrents of roast meat and crackling.”
In Greenock, part of what is known as the Western Slopes, the eastern-facing aspects and heavy brown earth, red clay and crackled ironstone combination develop Shiraz with the concentrated, fruit mince pie flavours Barossa wine is often associated with. “There’s some similarity with Marananga, but the geography changes things up a bit,” confirms Rowe. “The wines are firmly structured with forthright tannins – this is the region that can take a little time for them to open up and reveal themselves.”
Then, in Ebenezer – home to some of Australia’s greatest vineyards, in the northernmost end of the valley, where rainfall is lower – we see the full-bodied, powerful and age-worthy Shiraz that many assume to be the Barossa’s signature emerge. But there is nuance here also. “The great paradox of this sub-region,” explains Rowe, “is that the wines are broad-shouldered with plenty of power, yet there is an elegance – even delicacy – in the finer tannins they display. It’s an exciting balance.”
What’s more exciting is the opportunity for wine lovers who have developed (or are developing) their appreciation for genuine provenance to explore the superior quality on offer across the Terroirs of the Barossa range. Consistently rated 94+ points and regularly showered in Gold medals, these are wines that not only speak to their sense of origin, but to the continuing work of Château Tanunda in bringing forth the true character of the Barossa in all its richness, for the world to savour.