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The Vines: Fruit for Linke wines is selected from our Stonewell property, west of Tanunda in the Barossa Valley. The Shiraz vines used to produce our 2003 Shiraz were planted in 1993 using rootling vines from 40 year old Shiraz. The soil has had many uses over the years with the site once being used for pear and apricot orchards and grazing but is now proving to be ideal for grapevines with a deep red clay below a well structured red-brown earth topsoil. Water is only applied on a needs basis therefore making the vine work hard and producing more intense flavours.
The Wine: Only a small parcel of this wine has been produced making it unique and deserving of the "boutique" tag. After being picked at an optimum of 16 baume and maturing in American oak for 18 months the results have met our expectations. Dark ruby red in colour and displaying Fennel, Liquorice and Aniseed aromas. Rich, ripe shiraz with Blackberry and Vanilla characters on the palate makes this shiraz one which can be enjoyed now, but will reward careful cellaring.
Below are a few points on our grape growing history and Linke in general.
- Shiraz comes from 12 yr old vines from our Stonewell block in the Barossa Valley where my grandfather first started growing grapes.
- Low yielding block producing high quality fruit.
- I am a third generation grape grower.
- Linke’s have a long history in the Barossa Valley not only in grape growing but other relations, such as Linke’s Smallgoods and Linke’s Bakery have built up a reputation Australia wide for their traditional, high quality produce.
- We aim to release our own wine under the Linke family name and to produce a high quality wine that people can feel confident about purchasing.
- We supply fruit to Penfolds, St Hallets, Langmiel and BVE and have been doing so for many years.
- Recognized at Penfolds as a "Top Shelf’ grower.
- Winemaker is Stephen Black who has worked at BVE (under Colin Glaetzer), Barossa Vintners, Spear Creek (Adelaide Hills) and now has his own wine label "Small Gully Wines".Only 140 dozen of 2003 Shiraz produced
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