The wine world seems to still be trying to leave Australia for dead on the big stage, but Oz keeps rolling out hits that fly in the face of the standard rumors about the balance, performance and aging potential that seem to effectively counter them.\u00a0 As people who were in at the beginning of the great Australian invasion at the turn of the century, we are still among those that think the category holds too much promise to ignore.\u00a0 Here we are with \u2018public enemy number one\u2019, the category most pointed to in facilitating the decline in Australian wine\u2019s fall from grace, Barossa Shiraz and, to that, we say \u2018nonsense\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ll give you a short analysis of the main reasons we think Australian wines fell from grace in the marketplace.\u00a0 First was the breakdown of the classic \u2018big Shiraz\u2019 wines but, as we have said, a lot of the blame there has to fall on growers with old vines that decided they needed to have their own labels.\u00a0 We have proven on many occasions that \u2018the players\u2019 have excellent balance and age just fine (like the older Greenock Creeks we offered recently).\u00a0 Then there was a period where everything that came in seemed to be another leafy, undernourished red that was supposed to show restraint and be food friendly.\u00a0 The problem was that they weren\u2019t very engaging in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are doing our best to \u2018make Australians great again\u2019 in the minds of consumers because we believe in the wines and have long time relationships with a number of labels.\u00a0 Today\u2019s offer is one of those.\u00a0 The Kalleskes have been working their Greenock farm for longer than anyone we know in California, some 150 years or seven generations.\u00a0 They farm sustainably and not only organically but biodynamically.\u00a0 They were certified back in 1998, long before it was the topic it is today.\u00a0 Winemaker Troy Kalleske has been at the winemaking helm of his family’s winery for almost two decades .\u00a0 It was Troy and his brother Tony that created the Kalleske label back in 2002.\u00a0 They\u2019ve had plenty of time to figure things out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That same Troy Kalleske makes the Nietschke wines. \u00a0\u00a0Johann Nietschke and Johann Kalleske both arrived in Barossa to established vineyards in 1838.\u00a0 Somewhere around 1968 the families came together with the marriage of John Kalleske and Lorraine Nietschke, hence the connection here.\u00a0 A number of years after the establishment of Kalleske Wines, Troy wanted to showcase some of the dedicated high-quality growers from across the Barossa Valley so the Nietschke Shiraz was born, named in honor of his mother Lorraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The winery calls the Nietschke Jack Shiraz 2017 <\/a><\/strong>(named for \u2018great uncle\u2019 Jack) a \u2018modern Shiraz with a twist\u2019. There\u2019s a little something extra with a dash of Petite Sirah (5%) blended in for added complexity. All grapes are from the Barossa Valley including the renowned Greenock sub-region where vines are low-yielding and are grown in shallow, sandy loam soil over deep red clay, providing ideal conditions for these varieties.\u00a0 The juice spent a year in a combination of French and American hogsheads (300L barrels), some new and once used.\u00a0 It was bottled unfined and unfiltered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We know a lot of you will think this an \u2018unwieldy red\u2019 when you see Barossa Shiraz.\u00a0 That is the conditioned response that the media has encouraged. \u00a0Not true. Sure, this wine has some muscle and a ton of dark red fruits.\u00a0 But the weight and richness here present themselves with polish and balance.\u00a0 The Petite Sirah adds a little black pepper to the mix and threads of darker fruits.\u00a0 Full throttle, yes.\u00a0 But under control and packed with character.\u00a0 \u00a0Nice notes from James Suckling, \u201cBlackberry crumble, elderberry pie, vanilla and baking spices. Full body, some nice juicy tannins and a chewy finish.\u00a0.. 91 Points.\u201d All that and a sub-$20 price tag.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The wine world seems to still be trying to leave Australia for dead on the big stage, but Oz keeps rolling out hits that fly in the face of the standard rumors about the balance, performance and aging potential that seem to effectively counter them.\u00a0 As people who were in at the beginning of the … Continue reading “A JUICY VALUE FROM DOWN UNDER”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20],"tags":[9,21,24,23,827,25],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3994"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3994"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3998,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3994\/revisions\/3998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}