Vintage 2019
Torbreck The Steading is a decadent blend of three traditional Barossa varieties. Grenache and Mataro from old bush vines provide wonderful richness and fruit flavours with only free run Shiraz used to allow the Grenache to shine through.
The Steading is perhaps the most important wine within the Torbreck portfolio, the one that best exemplifies what Torbreck is all about. It is sourced from vines that survived the vine-pull scheme in the early 1980s, cultivated on their own roots that were unaffected by phylloxera. It also best explains Dave Powell's serendipitous discovery of some withered ancient vines, some well over a century old, that he carefully nurtured back to life. Protecting and nurturing the old vine resources of the Barossa Valley is paramount to him and this wine, more than any other is an indication of what is possible from the now protected ancient Barossa cultivars - Grenache, Mataro and Shiraz.
The Steading is sourced from our own vineyard estates as well as from growers on a share-farming basis, totalling 45 different sources of fruit, all vinified separately and blended once their individual virtues have been assessed. The Steadings generous and supple flavours combined with its silken texture are a rewarding and very versatile choice with all types of cuisine.
TASTING NOTES
The growing season was defined by a continuously warm to hot summer with no effective rainfall, wind and hail at flowering, and followed with three major frosts - resulting in an earlier and much smaller harvest than average. These tough conditions produced smaller clusters of intensely dark berries with thick fleshy skins contrasted against brown mature stalks. Whilst yields were down, once these vineyards were fermenting in our cellar the concentration of colour, tannin and aroma of the 2019 vintage was revealed.
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