Barossa Valley legend Ben Glaezer grew up in wine, his father Colin was winemaker at Seppelt, and his uncle is John Glaetzer, head winemaker at Wolf Blass for over 30 years. After graduating from Adelaide University’s Roseworthy campus, and a spell at Tyrrell’s, Ben went on to win a number of honours and titles as winemaker of Glaezer wines. The Heartland story began in the late 1990’s when Ben became excited about the outstanding quality of fruit being grown in some of South Australia’s lesser-known regions, in particular Langhorne Creek, where he explored thoroughly along with some winemaking friends. Today Heartland sources all of its fruit exclusively from Langhorne Creek and makes mainly red wines. Ben makes them 100km away at his state of the art Barossa Vintners winery in Tanunda. The Illicium name comes from Illicium Verum, the Latin name for Star Anise. This is a mix of Cabernet, single vineyard Shiraz and a little joyous, juicy Dolcetto. Together they have created a dense extremely fruity red layered with spice, cased in mellow oak.

The Angullong vineyards are located on the southern lower slopes of the Orange region at the foothills of Mount Canobolas, an ancient volcano. Angullong’s topography is best described as dramatic. The country ranges from undulating to steep hills with spectacular limestone escarpments that radically descend to the fast flowing Belubula River. Barbera is an Italian variety that has been grown in Australia in small qualities since the 1960s. Angullong ‘Fossil Hill’ Barbera is a succulent, medium bodied, savoury wine with abundant cherry, raspberry and herb flavours, complemented by textural and balanced tannins. The variety is eminently suited to cooler regions and should mature well in the bottle over the next five or six years. Enjoy it with barbecued lamb.

Hentley Farm was established in 1997 by Keith and Alison Hentschke, who had a single vision to craft exceptional single estate wines from the Barossa Valley. Using an old soil map from the 1950’s to strategically locate the best parcels of land, they discovered a mixed farming property set among the rolling hills on the banks of Greenock Creek in Barossa’s west, with remarkable diversity of soil types, and varying aspects and altitudes. In 2004, the estate was extended with the purchase of a neighbouring vineyard which shared the treasured natural amphitheatre of rolling hills that surround Hentley Farm and resultant diversity of site. This single estate of 150 acres is Hentley Farm. Beyond the single vineyard estates, Hentley Farm produce a portfolio of modern wines sourced from select vineyards across the Barossa including a range of wines under the Villain & Vixen label. As villains against convention we favour vixen like elegance, textural wines with enhanced vibrancy of fruit and varietal characteristics.