The Barossa Valley is neck deep in grapes. Two Hands sources fruit from 6 different shiraz growing regions, with most the fruit coming from McLaren Vale and Barossa Valley. We’ve picked most the McLaren Vale shiraz by this point, and for the past few days we’ve been pressing tanks like crazy getting prepared for the onslaught of Barossa shiraz which started coming in a few days ago. The Barossa fruit that we’ve picked so far looks excellent, well balanced, great tannin structure, with tremendous depth of flavor.

The 12 hour shifts are no joke. The day starts with an early morning arrival at the winery. Austrian roommate Volker purchased an awesome big white van, and the whole crew of vintage interns piles in the back for a bumpy ride to work. He wasn't too thrilled with the duct-tape additions made to the side paneling.

Now that harvest is cranking we do a bit of everything during the course of a day. We receive fruit, crush, spend lots of time doing pump-overs, dig out tanks and press, barrel down, repeat daily.

The shovel is my friend.

We’ve picked about half of our fruit so far, and with vintage really picking up we expect to bring in over 100 tonnes in the next week or 2. Thursday alone we’re picking about the annual production tonnage for Jaffurs.

Fortunately I’ve been successful at getting a fair bit of wine in between all the hard work. It was a drizzly, chilly day last week when roommates Chad, Robin and I visited the Rockford winery. I had tasted at Rockford during my first weekend in the Barossa, but have intended to return as the first tasting was ruined by the unbearable heat. Rockford’s “Basket Press” shiraz, one of Ausralia’s iconic wines, was released on the first of March and we were there to check out the good juice.

The ambiance of Rockford can’t be beat. You walk right past the production area on the way to the cellar door, and the crush pad is open for all to see. Rockford uses “traditional,” almost antiquated equipment. It pretty wild. The grapes get shoveled through a small opening in a stone wall into a wooden crusher/stemmer, the must gets pumped into open top slate fermentation tanks (the first time I’ve seen slate tanks anywhere) and/or several open top oak fermentation tanks. A couple underground stainless steel tanks are situated in between everything, benefiting space management and taking advantage of the cool natural temperature of the subterranean environment. The oak “basket presses” are the highlight of the old-school operation, providing Rockford’s most famous wine with a fitting name.

Eden Valley Riesling 06 I’ve had issues with Australian Rieslings in general. While many are good, quaffable wines, most are lean and dry, without the palate weight, depth, and true varietal character I associate with Riesling. The Rockford “hand picked” Riesling was a definite exception. Great flavor concentration, true varietal character, honeyed, with good minerality.

Local Growers’ Semillion 05 Also balanced. Well integrated oak, kinda lean but with rich flavors. Pretty good, not great.

White Frontignac 08Lychee, tropical fruit, less residual sugar than the Two Hands Moscato, but still a touch sweet. Good.

Alicante Bouchet 08The red fleshed grape that makes a light, fruity rose colored wine. Bubble gum, passion fruit, sweet. Bring on the beach.

Moppa Springs 04Grenache 47%, Mataro 40%, Shiraz 13%. This is my kind of Rhone blend. Grenache and Mourvedre dominated, with shiraz playing a supporting structural role. Earthy nose, rich fruit on palate, savory, elegant and refined, well balanced and food friendly. At $15US a bottle it’s hands down the most wine for the buck I’ve tasted down here.

Rod & Spur 05 Cab Sav 55%, Shiraz 45%. Lots of spice, light on palate, elegant, balanced, a touch of that bell pepper quality but not overly offensive, good texture, dry finish. We drank a bottle of this (and a few others) after getting home from night shift at 3am one morning, wine tastes damn good at that hour!

Rifle Range Cab Sav 06Old world fruit on nose, with great flavor concentration on palate. Earthy, yet rich.

Basket Press Shiraz 06Wow. Complex aromas of spice, cedar, dark fruit, mushrooms and earth, lush and soft yet still elegant with firm tannins, long lingering finish. Outstanding!

Black ShirazThe sparkling shiraz thing hasn’t really gotten its teeth into me, and while they’re interesting and some are good, I’m not certain it’s for me. The Rockford Black Shiraz is an exception, it’s refreshing, blackberry-licious, with depth of flavor and the perfect level of spritz. Regarded as Australia’s best sparkling shiraz. Killer.

A couple days later the gang and I made the most of our time before night shift began and travelled to the southern regions of Barossa Valley to visit the Massena winery. Massena is appointment only, and does not have a proper cellar door. We cruised up a dodgy dirt road to find a picturesque, isolated stone built winery among the empty rolling hills.

As we poked around we found the work crew busy doing barrel work, forklifting tanks around, in the middle of what seemed to be a typical harvest day. A few minutes winemaker Jason walked up and introduced himself and started showing us around and began walking us through the Massena approach to wine production. Fruit is sourced from premium vineyards (many old vine sites), fermented in open top concrete fermenters, basket pressed, and the wine then receives extensive barrel age.

We met asst. winemakers Dan Standish (Standish wines) and Fraser McKinnley (Sami-Odi wines) in the cellar during an impressive barrel moving effort.

The group proceeded to move to the stone cottage out front to start talkin’ wine, poppin’ bottles, and sharing stories. This was hands down one of the best tasting experiences I’ve had in Australia. Not only were the wines expressive, balanced, well made, and delicious, but the whole Massena operation was particularly inspiring to a young winemaker dude like myself. Here are three guys who make kick ass wines, who all said “hey, let’s do this for ourselves and make it happen.” And they are!

Left to right: Fraser, Jason, Dan, The Chad

As we kicked off the tasting, Jason addressed a mystery that had been on my mind since day one in the Barossa: where did the valley get its name? Many other regional Australian names have Aborigine origins, or are dedicated to explorers, governors, or British royalty. No one seemed to have the answer about Barossa Valley, until now. When British settlers and explorers (no prisoners in South Australia) came upon Barossa in 1837, the valley shared a resemblance with the landscape of southern Spain they had come to know during the 1810 battle of Barrosa. A couple letters got jumbled around and Australia’s little shiraz growing jewel became Barossa Valley. France’s general Andre Massena was on the losing side of the Barrosa battle, but history forgives and now he has some tasty juice with his name on it .

Viognier 08 “The Surly Muse” Bright, citrus, tropical fruit, good acidity, lean with round flavors. Terrific viognier, totally my style for this grape.

Rose 07(Grenache, Mataro, Cinsault, Petite Sirah) Dry, lots of fruit on palate, barrel aged with a touch of oak, red passion fruit finish. Interesting and enjoyable. Atypical for OZ.

Barbera 08 Real interesting nose. Fig, molasses, cola, spice, soft and easy on palate with grip and tannin no finish. Complex and different, I like it.

The Moonlight Run Grenache, Shiraz, Mataro, Cinsault. Elegant and light on its feet with loads of flavor concentration. Seamless on palate, little bit of that crushed red fruit Chateuneuf de Pape quality.

The Eleventh Hour Shiraz 07Elegant aromatics. Dark fruit on nose with a touch of the classic Aussie chocolate mint. Chalky with minerality. Real pure cherry red fruit flavors on palate, seamless and linear, soft tannins and balanced.

Dan and Fraser busted out their own wines after we wrapped up with the Massena goodness. Fraser commented “well gee, I don’t think I’ve ever done this before.” IE never opened wine for tasting!

Standish 05Barossa Shiraz. Fruit sourced from 80-100 year vines, and aged in French Oak for 25-36 months. Earthy with a touch of that good funk I like on the nose. Leather, wood, tobacco, and dark fruit. Substantial tannin/structure. A little sweet blue fruit deep underneath. Nice wine.

Sami-Odi 07Barossa Shiraz. 100% stem inclusion, speaking my language baby! Old world fruit on nose, croze style spice, graphite/pencil lead, real saturating mouth-feel, elegant, great texture, tremendous balance. Awesome wine, beautiful package. 75 cs

We left Massena happy as can be. Dan generously sent us home with a different bottling of the Standish shiraz (with a little viognier blended in), and that gesture captured the vibe of our whole visit. Three great guys sharing their time, stories, and wine with us in a very genuine way. We hope to catch up with them before vintage ends, fire up the barbie and see how Aussie shiraz matches up with the Cali wines we brought out.

Like I mentioned before, vintage is really heating and sadly my blog postings are becoming less frequent. Currently I’m typing this in the wee hours of the night. The other roommates have long since gone to bed, and I’m purposely not counting the hours until I have to return to the winery. While the long hours may seem rough at the moment, life’s pretty sweet. I’m gonna hit the grapes tomorrow morning, drink some coffee, rock out to some Allman Brothers (wine likes rock n roll!), and make some damn good wine.

Drop me a line at sbwinedude@gmail.com