Barr-Eden Estate is a storied piece of land situated at the crest of Mengler’s Hill, one of the highest points of viticulture in Australia. Well-known grape-grower Joel Mattschoss first acquired fruit from the site, which sits atop the ancient goldfields of the Eden, in 2014, to produce the first small batch Love Over Gold wine with Frenchman Pierre-Henri Morel. After the passing of the estate’s owner, Barossa icon, Bob McLean, in 2015, a venture began between the two, along with friends Michael Twelftree and Tim Hower, to become the new custodians of this special property of great pedigree. The vines at Barr-Eden Estate were planted in 1928 and 2018 is turning out as an excellent Eden Valley Vintage. The bunches are formed with a long framework and very loose clusters and picked at optimum ripeness. Bunch thinning manages low yields and high quality fruit. Coming from a 95-year-old vineyard, the old vines are able to withstand heat spikes, as well as its elevation which brings cooler night temperatures. Destemmed by hand, berry by berry and fermented slowly over weeks. Ten percent whole-bunch Gentle pigeage was performed twice daily with the natural ferment progressing at a cool temperature. Once ferment was complete and after 24 days, free run was drained to a 2 year old extra tight grained French puncheon. Love Over Gold possesses a core of ripe and defined fruit with tannins that are coating and very long, it will age effortlessly over 20 to 25 years.

The Barossa is home to some of the world’s oldest ungrafted Shiraz vines. The vines were planted in a pre-mechanized and pre-irrigation era where site selection was everything. Dry grown as bush vines with only the best soils, vine material and sites surviving the first years, and only the absolute pinnacle surviving the 100 years thereafter. The low-yielding ‘Centenarian’ vines, noted for their intensity of flavour, were planted more than a century ago around the time construction of the Château itself began. The select parcels are hand-picked and fermented in small open fermenters with hand plunging four times daily before careful basket pressing to extract tannin and colour. Suitable For Vegans And Vegetarians.