Estate single vineyard wine grown in the chilly surrounds of Mount McKenzie in the Eden Valley. This label represents our rendition of Eden Valley Shiraz which is the non dried portion fruit that of Frost Dodger Shiraz and is aged in ex Frost Dodger barrels.
Region: Eden Valley
Sub-Region: Mount McKenzie
Specific Vineyard: Mount McKenzie
Altitude: 380 meters
Vineyard Practices: Family traditional biological farming methods with a diet of composts, native grasses & faunas as ground cover, low water imput and natural sprays for diseases.
Soil: Clay loam over a shaley schist rock bed
Vintage: Winter rainfall in the Eden Valley was below average with a slight frost during the last week of October which reduced yields by 20%. December rainfall was much needed as ahead of us was summers bright start up with our grapeyard once again overcomming the extreme heatwave in early February and continued to prevail with milder slower ripening conditions to produce a beautifully aromatic and flavousome Shiraz.
Wine making: Once again very minimalistic workings including 25% whole bunch open top ferment, wild yeast fermented, soft pump overs / hand plunging, basket pressed, aged for 13 months and bottled unfiltered.
Torzi Matthews scores 5 star rating James Halliday 2009 Australian Wine Companion
Estate single vineyard wine grown in the chilly surrounds of Mount McKenzie in the Eden Valley. This label represents our rendition of Eden Valley Shiraz which is the non dried portion fruit that of Frost Dodger Shiraz and is aged in ex Frost Dodger barrels.
As you may know by now, I do get cross when people dismiss Australian wine as a slick, soulless, corporate, technological construct. Domenic Torzi is typical of the new generation of Australian wine artisans, hand-making wine from a small patch of vines, taking an extraordinary risk by planting vines in a frost pocket on the gentle slopes of Mt McKenzie in the Eden Valley because he and his partner Tracy Matthews were convinced that the naturally low yields on the poor soils here and the particular flavours were worth risking the frosts that had driven those who originally planted vines here in the early 20th century away. Their ten hectares of vines went into the ground in 1996 and Domenic, from an Italian family that settled on the Adelaide Plains in the 1950s and have been making olive oil, and wine for home consumption, for some time, was anxious to get to grips with a really special piece of land. So much is made of the Barossa and to a lesser extent Clare Valleys that the beautiful Eden Valley, its unpaved roads lined with gums, is often overlooked. Yalumba and Henschke are the king and queen. Torzi Matthews is definitely an upstart serf. Jancis Robinson
