Life at the chateau

The Barossa Valley’s Chateau Tanunda has 130 years of winemaking behind it, but it was only restored to its former glory just over 20 years ago. James Halliday shares the story and runs through the wines.

James Halliday on the Barossa Valley’s Chateau Tanunda

CHATEAU TANUNDA was built between 1888 and 1890, and sold in a day in 1998 to John Geber, who chanced to see it on a bicycle-riding mission to sniff out grape-buying opportunities. From the heady days of the new century, the magnificent building had fallen into near ruin, all the windows broken, the roof open to the skies, and pigeons its tenants. Its owner, Southcorp Wines, hadn’t received a single call about the building for more than five years. It’s ironic that the Chateau has been restored to its former glory and Southcorp has died a corporate death, the acquisition price a fraction of the restoration cost. South African-born marketing genius John had established a proud record as he moved around the world to the US, Germany, Switzerland (where he met his wifeto-be, Evelyne) and Australia.

It was here in 1991 that he decided to leave the shelter of large corporations and founded the Australian Food and Beverage

Group. He quickly built an export business selling inexpensive Australian wine to continental Europe. By 2000, the company was the number-one exporter, with brands such as Kangaroo Ridge, Kangaroo Hills and Naturally Australian.

One of John’s major successes as a marketer had been taking

Tetley’s teabags from a 2 per cent market share to 30. That it should be the success of the Tetley All-Rounder teabag offers an insight to John’s passion for cricket. Chateau Tanunda now has its own cricket field, and he brought in six former international players for an invitation game at December’s celebrations of their 130 years of winemaking.

Enter John’s daughter Michelle Geber, whose CV is utterly exceptional, broad-based from one aspect, pin-point focused from another. Suffice to say, her way up the Chateau Tanunda ladder since 2012 has had an air of inevitability about it. The last step has been her appointment in January 2018 as managing director, with 40 reports.

Before I read her CV, I had found the cross-hatch of the wine range daunting. But now it feels as if the Rosemount Estate mantra of its glory days has been revived. Rosemount chief operating officer Keith Lambert would say to the winemakers and sales executives, “I don’t want to be told there’s no more stock of a wine still in its sale cycle. Make more [of the same wine]!” The parallel that springs to mind is Rosemount’s Diamond Label and Chateau Tanunda’s Grand Barossa range.

John says he sees the entire Barossa Valley as his vineyard.

“The house style at Chateau Tanunda remains constant, with composition of a blend tweaked according to the vintage or market needs. Today, wines in the Chateau Tanunda Grand Barossa line, for example, are comprised of small lots, all fermented separately.” One of Michelle’s first priorities was rationalising the portfolio, making it tight and right. Each wine must fit into a group that has a clearly defined story and point of difference. No wine is added to the portfolio just because of a trend-of-the-month or because some good fruit is available.

So it is that the Grand Barossa quartet (Riesling, Shiraz, Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre, and Cabernet Sauvignon) open the batting at $25 (the Riesling with 98- and 40-year-old components). The GSM blend (67/22/11%) works very well, with partial wholebunch for the grenache, matured separately in small batches, 19 months in French and American oak. Rich, full-flavoured but not overdone. Good value. Good wine. The same is true of the Cabernet Sauvignon and the Shiraz, drawn from vineyards across the Barossa and Eden Valleys, composed with multiple small batches blended and matured in French oak.

Next comes a pair of The Chateau – single-vineyard wines of

Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon – at $38; the Shiraz given the full treatment, single identified vineyard, open fermented, basket pressed, 18 months in 70% French and 30% American oak, 10% new. There is more underway for Cabernet Sauvignon with an eastfacing contoured site on Chateau Tanunda’s Eden Valley Matthews Road property. The latest clones of the six Bordeaux varieties (cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, malbec, merlot, petit verdot and carmenere) are being planted.

The game plan adds more with the Terroirs of the Barossa quartet, spread across Ebenezer District, Eden Valley, Marananga and Greenock. All Shiraz, all at $55, and all made the same way: destemmed, open fermented, cold soaked, basket pressed, and matured for 18 months in French and American oak. It’s a statement of the obvious to say this throws the spotlight on the very different nature of the districts.

As the price increases to $80, so does a shift from district to vine age, with two key wines: Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. The 50 Year Old Vines Cabernet Sauvignon block was planted in the 1960s on the Fiedlers View Vineyard in Bethany, at a time when there was relatively little mature cabernet in the Barossa. Hand-picked, it’s destemmed to small open fermenters, basket pressed, then matured in French oak (20% new) for 18 months.

Its keeper of the faith is the 50 Year Old Vines Shiraz, using parcels sourced across the Light Pass, Bethany and Marananga districts, hand-picked, destemmed to open fermenters, matured in French oak (20% new) for 24 months and due for release this October, together with the 50 Year Old Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Captain’s Picks are The Everest Barossa Shiraz ’16 and The Everest Barossa Grenache ’16, 100 dozen and 58 dozen bottles respectively made, both $295. The Grenache comes from a single 100-year-old dry-grown block in Greenock. Hand-picked and sorted into a one-tonne fermenter, basket pressed into used French oak, and held in bottle for a further 24 months before release. There’s a load of blood plum and dark cherry fruit in this fullbodied grenache that does have balance despite its weight.

The Everest Barossa Valley Shiraz is a regional blend from Marananga, Stonewell and the Eden Valley. Hand-picked, handsorted and fermented in open stainless-steel fermenters, basket pressed to 86% French and 14% American oak (33% new) for 18 months maturation. A final barrel selection and blend is bottled and matured for a further 24 months before release.

Given the starting point was specific low-yielding vines, it’s hardly surprising the wine has an opaque, deep purple colour, hand plunging adding its impact; the dense fruit has a chocolate edge that submerges the oak. The heavyweight dark glass bottles, the corks, the names and the label designs would, I assume, have both domestic and export market appeal, the prices of no consequence in China.

The house style at Chateau Tanunda remains constant, with composition of a blend tweaked

according to the vintage or market needs. Today, wines in the Chateau Tanunda Grand Barossa line, for example, are comprised of small lots, all fermented separately.

John Geber

If all this wasn’t enough, there’s the $400 150 Year Old Vines

Barossa 1858 Field Blend, a single 2016 vintage parcel of interplanted grenache, mourvedre and malbec from the Eden Valley. This wine has a balance between plum, blackberry and black cherry within a framework of French oak and tannins. It’s only medium-bodied, but its balance should ensure a long future.