Deci-significant Old Man's Birthday Wine
For my deci-significant birthyear birthday celebration, I pulled from the cellar this aged vintage aptly-named top rated super premium Barossa Valley Shiraz for the occasion.
This is the flagship wine of Kaesler, one of the traditional old vine family names of the Barossa Valley, South Australia with vineyards dating back to 1893.
The first owners of the Kaesler vineyards were Silesian pioneers who came to the Barossa Valley in the 1840s and took up 96 acres in 1891. By 1893 they had planted the entire acreage with Shiraz, Grenache, Mataro (Mourvedre) and White Hermitage vines. Some of the gnarled dry-grown Shiraz still remain and provide the backbone of a family of intense wines.
The Kaesler family first purchased several blocks 1893 and operated the property until 1986. In those early days, much of the fruit was sold to Seppeltsfield for port and sherry production.
By 1917 with grape sales flagging, various blocks were
pulled up and replanted to orchards including apricot,
peach and plums. The remaining vines mostly consisted of red and fortified varieties,
some Grenache added in the 1930’s and more Shiraz planted in the 60’s
and 70’s. These plantings account for the celebrated aged
Shiraz produce to today.
In 1944 the family holdings were divided between the three Kaesler brothers, two selling off their properties, but Arthur Kaesler (the youngest brother) held on to the home block converting orchards back to vineyard and maintaining its old vines. Kaesler sold the property in 1986 to private owners who continued to sell the fruit to local wineries including Penfolds, Seppelt and Orlando.
At
the time, the Kaesler vineyards consisted of over 70% red wine vines,
all 40 years of age or more.
Winemaker Reid ‘Boz’ Bosward heard of the remarkable qualities of this special vineyard when he managed to get his hands on some of the grapes and produce a special batch of the first Old Bastard Shiraz in 1998.
In 1999, Bosward seized the opportunity to become the head of the new Kaesler family property when he and his partners bought Kaesler, becoming the third owners of the property. Teaming with Swiss banker Edourd Peters, they formed a syndicate and purchased and consolidated two of the three original historic old vine Kaesler Blocks, and Old Bastard was born.
The revered 2.5 acre (12 row) vineyard consists of 125 year old vines that sit just outside the back door of the winery, Kaesler Cellar Door; an old brick horse stable now is a private tasting room, an old cow shed now the Kaesler Kitchen restaurant, and Ernst Kaesler’s old house, now the Kaesler Cottages B&B.
One of the most famous patches of Shiraz vines in the Barossa, sourced from a unique clone of French Rhone Valley Shiraz (now extinct in France) they produce a unique flavour characteristics and distinctive profile that makes the Old Bastard what it is. It has become recognized as one of Australia’s most highly regarded Shiraz wines, consistently rated as one of the Barossa’s benchmark Shiraz wines and is highly sought after by wine collectors around the world.
Consistent wine making since 1998, focusing on meticulous vineyard management and using the highest quality Burgundian oak for 12 to 19 months depending on the character of the vintage, Kaesler Shiraz is bottled “au naturel”, with no fining and filtration. The result is fruit driven to the core, elegant with density and richness, savoury muscular tannins and underlying oak.
The whimsical label features a distinctive Ralph Steadman caricature.
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