Wine: Sheep’s Back: Shiraz

South Australia

Straddling the centre of the Australian continent, South Australia is the wine industry’s powerhouse State, producing most of the nation’s wine and boasting some of the oldest individual vines in the world. The venerable old vines found in South Australia’s Barossa Valley and Adelaide Hills, through their isolation, survived the great phylloxera plagues that wiped out the vines of North America and Europe, and somewhat later, devastated
Australia’s eastern vineyards. Quarantine restrictions were introduced, saving South Australia’s vines from phylloxera, and ensuring the State retained its grape growing status. In addition to being host to some of the world’s oldest vines, the State also has a diversity of regions ranging from the relatively warm temperate climate of the Barossa Valley through to the maritime precincts of the McLaren Vale, Southern Fleurieu, Currency Creek and Langhorne Creek regions on the Fleurieu Peninsula and across the cooler Adelaide Hills region to the hotter Riverland region on the Murray River. The south-eastern part of the State includes the Limestone Coast zone and the “terra rossa” soils overlying limestone which give rise to distinct elegant reds of the Coonawarra region. The “Limestone Coast” zone - which also includes the Padthaway, Wrattonbully and Mount Benson regions - is building its own reputation for wines that are not only influenced by the region’s eponymous limestone but the tempering breezes of the nearby Southern Ocean.

Sheep’s Back

Sheep’s Back Shiraz is the end of a painstaking search undertaken by Neil Empson to find a suitable vineyard in order to fulfill his dream of making a classic Australian Shiraz from the ancient vines of South Australia’s Barossa Valley region. When Neil Empson met famed winemaker Dean Hewitson in the late
1990’s, the two men set about making the dream a reality. Together they scoured the Barossa Valley and eventually uncovered a tiny plot of 80 year old Shiraz vines: dry farmed and low yielding. The astounding quality of the fruit was enough to convince both men they had found something special. The vineyard lies in the Vine Vale sub-zone of the Barossa and produces fruit of great depth and intensity of both aroma and flavor. In making this wine, the guiding philosophy is always geared toward preserving the integrity of the Shiraz fruit while translating something of the terroir of this rare vineyard into the finished product. After harvest, the grapes are destemmed and lightly crushed before undergoing a fermentation in stainless steel fermenters, where regular batonage ensures maximum extraction of color, aromas and tannins. Malolactic fermentation normally takes place in barrel and the wine is matured in a mixture of new and older French oak. The proportion of new barrels is deliberately kept to only 20% to ensure that the wine is faithful to its vineyard origins.

The 2002 growing season in South Australia was arguably the greatest red wine vintage of the last 20 years. 2002 Sheep’s Back displays the intense aromas of black currants, black cherry and hints of violets and wood spice. The palate is redolent of the dark fruits alongside noticeable spice and minerality. This is a
full bodied wine which sports ripe tannins and good structure that will see it improve with cellaring for 5-8 years.

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