BEER BROTHERS

Colin's brother Bruce (truly the 'Beer Brothers') joined him in grapegrowing in 1987. Bruce juggled his interest in the vineyard with his work in the oil industry in various exotic locations throughout Australia and the world and happily left the hands on management to Colin who by then was an established vigneron. Whilst the Beer boys grew up in Mallala some 45 minutes from the Barossa, they can't be termed true 'Barossa Deutsch', their forebears did arrive with the same wave of immigrants from Silesia in 1848, and in fact one of their ancestors was buried in the local Tanunda cemetery in 1850.

When Colin and Bruce bought the vineyard together at Siegersdorf in the heart of the Barossa, some replanting was necessary. Sadly they pulled out a patch of Grenache before Charlie Melton of Charles Melton Wines made it desirable as truly suiting the Valley climate and planted Chardonnay and a patch of Chenin Blanc, believing this an up and coming variety. Well, Chenin blanc hasn't quite come into its own and though Chardonnay is definately a premium variety, happily they were never tempted to replant the low bearing old Shiraz planted in the early 1960's.

Barossa floor Shiraz has gained a huge reputation for the quality of the big, bold and silky wines it produces thanks in no small part to the pioneering efforts of Rockford Wines and its owner Robert O'Callahan. Whilst the majority of these grapes are sold to Yalumba for use in their premium labels, as grapegrowing is the primary focus of their vineyard business, for many years a small amount of this old vine Shiraz has been sold to Robert each vintage to be part of his famous Basket Press Shiraz.

This gives 'the brothers' a guernsey to the Rockford growers night each vintage where he keeps the fruit of each grower separately to show the individual results of each vineyard. Something that only such a small winery can do but the pride it engenders in the growers is immense.

In the mid 1990's, with many premium Barossa producers being attracted by the old low yielding Shiraz, they began selling a small quantity also to Dave Powell of Torbreck Wines. Dave incorporated their grapes into his now famous reds. His wines, were until recently, better known in the USA than Australia. Dave’s wines are highly prized by influential US wine writer Robert Parker who has awarded them 99 points out of 100 on several occasions. This led to asking Dave to also make a flagship red for Beer Brothers with a parcel of their coveted grapes. The first result of this gives us Beer Bros 2001 Old Vine Barossa Shiraz, where only 1000 bottles have been produced.

Tasting Notes for Current Vintage

James Haliday Rating: NR