The Secret Behind Barossa Shiraz
The Barossa is famous for its red wine and it is in this region where Shiraz reigns supreme. Penfolds Grange, Australia’s most famous wine, uses a large percentage of the Shiraz from the Barossa. Henschke Hill of Grace, another high profile Australian wine, also uses Barossa Shiraz in its production.
The famous Barossa wine region is a little over an hour by car north of Adelaide, South Australia’s capital. The Barossa comprises two regions, the Barossa Valley and Eden Valley.
The Barossa Valley is generally less than 400 metres above sea-level and stretches from Williamstown in the south to Kapunda and Truro in the north. Although the Barossa Valley has abundant amounts of fertile red-brown soil, it actually received around 50% less rainfall than the neighboring Eden Valley. Temperatures in these regions are about 2ºC warmer on average.
Eden Valley includes the country from Truro in the north through to Mount Pleasant in the south. This region averages for 400 to 600 metres abouve sea level with the wine growing areas being situated in the higher sections of land. Eden Valley has much rockier, acidic soil than the Barossa Valley and also enjoys about 255mm more rainfall every year. The cooler temperatures in this region means that growing seasons are generally longer.
A number of wine aficionados may be wondering what this all means, well to put it bluntly – great growing conditions!
In totall there are around 550 growers in the Barossa region, with some stretching back up to six generations. When combined, the total growing area is over 8,000 hectares which yields around 55,000 tonnes of grapes each season.
The Barossa has remained phylloxera free since growing first started here. This means that many vineyards still thrive on their own root stocks, distinguishing the Barosssa as a wine-growing region with some of the world’s oldest vines.
Even though the Barossa represents about 5% of Australia’s national crush, the fruit produced is premium quality. The constant premium quality of wines produced in the Barossa makes them Australia’s most internationally influential regions with a large number of Barossa wines being categorized in the super-premium class.
It is little wonder that Barossa Shiraz is in such high acclaim across the world.
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