The Barossa holds some of the oldest continuously producing Shiraz vines on earth. Here is why they make such extraordinary wine.
The Barossa Valley is home to some of the oldest producing grapevines in the world. While much of Europe's vineyard stock was destroyed by the phylloxera louse in the late 19th century, South Australia's strict quarantine kept the pest out, and a number of original plantings survive to this day.
Several Barossa vineyards date to the 1840s and 1850s. Langmeil's Freedom 1843 vineyard is widely cited as one of the oldest surviving Shiraz plantings anywhere, and growers across the valley tend gnarled, low-yielding vines that have produced fruit for well over a century.
These old vines matter because of what age does to a vineyard. As vines mature, their yields fall, but the concentration and complexity of the fruit they produce tends to rise. The result is the dense, dark-fruited, long-lived Shiraz for which the Barossa is renowned.
To protect this heritage, the region developed the Barossa Old Vine Charter, which recognises vines as Old Vine, Survivor Vine, Centenarian and Ancestor Vine according to their age, with Ancestor Vines being 125 years or older. It is a framework that few other wine regions can match.
For visitors, the old vines offer a tangible link to the valley's pioneering past. Producers such as Rockford, Henschke, Turkey Flat and Langmeil build their reputations on these heritage plantings, and tasting their flagship wines is a chance to drink something that simply cannot be made anywhere younger.
