Radford Eden Valley Shiraz 2005
I first met Ben Radford when he was working as a head winemaker at the Longridge/Winecorp group in Stellenbosch, South Africa. A bevy of international journalists grilled Ben, a French winemaker and a South African about the wines they were producing for the group. The others refused to admit there were any shortcomings in the wines they had made (there were), while Ben took the opposite tack, criticising his own wines even though they were clearly the best. He and Gillian Radford are now the proud owners of a 4-ha vineyard in the Eden Valley, with 1.2 ha of riesling planted in 1930, 1.1 ha planted in 1970, and 1.7 ha of shiraz planted in 2000. 5 star winery James Halliday
"OUR WINES HAVE A REMARKABLE BALANCE OF INTENSITY AND DELICACY, ELEGANCE AND LENGTH THAT I DON'T THINK YOU CAN GET FROM A YOUNGER VINEYARD"
Ben grew up around the vineyards of the Barossa - his Dad was one of the region's best know viticultural advisors and like a lot of local lads he felt compelled to broaden his horizons. He worked in Burgundy, Canada and South Africa to hone his winemaking craft but the more time he spent away, the more he recognised how unique the Barossa was in world terms.
When we met in South Africa I had been working a parallel career - as a chef and as a wine marketer in Stellenbosch. I was running my own catering company and on trips back to Australia I was naturally drawn to the Barossa's regional food culture and its sense of European tradition.
On one of those trips home we fell in love with a property in Eden Valley and ended up purchasing it. It was the provenance of the vines which attracted us. There were two patches of Riesling, one over 75 years old and another 40 years old. That's pretty old for Riesling in Australia - in fact our vines were the backbone of one of Australia's most famous Rieslings in the 1960's. There's something rewarding about continuing that tradition. Everyone talks about old Shiraz but old Riesling vines also create a unique flavour profile. Our wines have a remarkable balance of intensity and delicacy, elegance and length that I don't think you can get from a younger vineyard.
We also make Shiraz using our own fruit blended with some older vine material from our neighbours, and we would like to plant Grenache and maybe Tempranillo down the track. But with such great vineyard resources we see ourselves primarily as an Eden Valley Riesling specialist. We're trying new things all the time - partial barrel fermentation, botrytis, even a fortified Riesling. We are also committed to sustainable viticulture. All our vines are hand pruned and hand picked and we are in the middle of a program which we hope one day will see us as an accredited biodynamic producer. It's a wonderful journey and remarkably satisfying.
