The Old Boys of Barossa

Although opinions differ across the world, in the Barossa Valley vines are said to be "old" at 35 years of age: Millennials in human terms, planted in 1990 or earlier. My girlfriend told me recently that men reach emotional maturity at the age of 43 (wishful thinking on her part, perhaps!) Mature maybe, but certainly not old!

At 3 or 4 years old, vines are adolescent; often gangly, flamboyant, over-foliaged and variable. Anyone with teenagers will understand. These young vines are resource intensive. They need guidance, support, ample water and lots of attention. They are hard work, but they are never boring. Vines calm down as each subsequent vintage passes: maturing, putting down deeper roots, a little more wood on the trunk: Growing up.

As vine get a little older and more settled, productivity has a tendency drop, and yields decrease. All too often a vineyard will be ‘grubbed up’ and replaced when crop levels drop below a financially viable level. This is typically between 25 to 40 years, just as the vines are reaching their Old Vine milestone.

But as yields decrease as vines approach their twilight years, the upside of these smaller harvests is often increased flavour complexity, depth and concentration in the fruit, and much greater consistency when compared to younger vines.   

Old Vines are also well-adapted to the stresses of their climate - resilient survivors who have fought off pests and diseases without chemical influences, over decades and centuries. Deep rooted and well-adapted to their soils, they can often be naturally dry farmed without expensive irrigation, which makes these old vines very sustainable. That is not to say that cantankerous oldsters are easy to manage, however, and these unique old vineyards do themselves require specific attention. From pruning to harvesting – this all must be done by hand to ensure vines remain undamaged.

The success of the vine depends on its ability to resist pests, fungus and mildew, and extremes of temperature and cold that their environment offers. Barossa has a temperate Mediterranean climate – warm on the valley floor, and cooler on its sides and slopes. It doesn’t get much below 5*C in the cool wet winters, and hits peaks of 30-35c in the warm dry mid-summer months of December and January –perfect for vitis vinifera vines.

The first vines arrived in Barossa in the 1940s, and by a happy accident dodged the phylloxera plague which ravaged European vines in the 1850s. These newly planted vineyards of the Barossa outlived much of their European lineage. They survived; their parents did not, the ravaged European vines grubbed up and supplanted, grafted onto more resistant roots. Some of these vines are the oldest of their line! 

While a vine survives through by resisting extreme temperatures, pests, fungus and mildew and not succumbing, a grape vine survives because it continues to bear the fruit to make good wine.

And this is the key reason these monumental vines have survived. Although less productive and less vigorous, they still produce rich, refined and complex fruit! In fact, in fact in recent years, the price of old vine grapes has increased, making farming these gnarly heirlooms profitable once again and securing their future.

Over the last 25 years or so, a greater level of understanding appreciation of Old Vines has emerged, and with this the recognition that the Barossa is home to the highest concentration of old vine vineyards anywhere in the world. Efforts have been made to classify and catalogue these sites to protect and safeguard them, and in 2009 The Old Vine Charter was adopted in Barossa. This charter classifies vineyards by age: from old vines at 35 years, to survivors at 75, centenarians at 100 and the very oldest – over 125 years of age – are termed ancestors.

One such site of Old Vine Grenache in the Barossa Valley owes its survival to pure luck. Not paying for itself and due to be grubbed up, this 85-year-old vineyard’s owners were discussing its future over drinks where they were overheard by Kym Teusner, a winemaker with a degree in Oenology degree from the University of Adelaide and an internship at legendary producer Torbreck under his belt.

And after some pub talk, an agreement with the owners, the Riebke brothers, was made and the vineyard saved, and Teusner Wines was born. This was 2001, and the first vintage from Teusner – the unoaked, Grenache-based Joshua – was made the following year.

Teusner was working for Barossa legend Rolf Binder, making his first vintages on the side with business partner Mick Page in a cellar which Binder owned. Kym’s first wines were well-received, and volumes increased. By 2008 – the first full time vintage – Kym, Mick and the 300 tonnes of fruit they were pressing annually had outgrown Binder’s warehouse and looking for a new permanent home.

In 2016, having made a partnership with Javier Moll’s Terramoll, owners of outstanding Old Vines of Shiraz, Grenache and Mataro, Teusner opened his own small-batch winery in Nurloopta.

Teusner Wines may have evolved, but Kym’s ethos remains the same: “To make wines I’d like to drink and which reflect the heritage of the Barossa!”

The Old Vines which Kym saved in 2001, and which set Teusner Wines in motion, are now over one hundred years old: Centennials by Charter standards. These family heirlooms are still bearing ripe, rich and intense fruit, and Kym Teusner’s wines continue to gain praise and plaudits across the world.   

The secret of winemaking at Teusner is all in the blend. While some winemakers strive to maximise old-vine fruit, high level produce and consistency is the key driver of the demand for old vine fruit at Teusner, with Kym’s focus squarely on producing stylistic wines which reflect the Barossa’s terroirs. Across the Teusner range, wines with a brighter fruit-driven expression (e.g. The Joshua) sit alongside wines with a greater focus on tannin and savoury aspects (e.g. The Avatar).

Blending wine is a balancing act, and Kym Teusner is ultimately responsible for all wines produced, supported by a very experienced team. With a laser focus on site-selection and careful viticulture, parcels from different vineyard sites are pressed separately, and profiled and tasted ex-ferment. From there, blends are compiled ‘in concert’ to achieve the best possible results from all available fruit– new, old and very very old.

To produce the Albert Shiraz, Kym and team target specific Old Vine Shiraz vineyards which provide the characteristic drive and concentrated fruit profile. These are not the oldest vineyards in terms of the Barossa, but are 40 – 60 years old, respectively, and produce the optimum fruit to produce this outstanding stylistic wine.

For the Righteous series, Teusner isolates the single best parcel of that variety, with wines only bottled and released in the years that reflect the best that the Barossa can produce. Almost exclusively, over time, these wines have been made from Old Vine parcels.

Age is relative. And in wine terms, the Barossa is very young region. Whilst there is evidence of viticulture (growing grape vines) on the Western fringes of Asia as far back as 4000BC, grape vines arrived in Barossa in the 1840s. Grape vines are adaptable. Vines make for hardy colonists, taking root virtually anywhere with a temperate climate, and the Barossa Valley now sports over 11,000 hectares of vineyards, or 8% of Australia’s total.

This rugged region’s reputation for iconic, vibrant and fruit-forward wines was made in the years since the 1960s, but traditions are venerated and valued and across the Barossa,  vintage equipment and winemaking styles sit alongside novel winemaking science and innovations. This sense of tradition with a modern edge has made the picturesque rugged Barossa Valley a magnet for tourists, keen to experience authentic rural South Australia, but now with a plethora of luxury resorts and fine dining restaurants to enjoy.

Roots run deep in the Barossa, where dynastic families of growers and landowners can be six or seven generations old. Some of the earliest Barossa vineyards would once have been gardens and homesteads, and the farmers that tended them knew – and still know – these lands like the back of their hand, with successive generations of families often growing up with the same vines.

Alongside this exists a tight-knit regional family tree of legendary winemakers. Kym Teusner worked for Rolf Binder when he made his first eponymous vintages, and interned with Dave Powell’s team at Torbreck. Powell himself was an alumni of Robert O’Callaghan’s Rockford vineyards along with Chris Ringland. Traditions and techniques passed from winemaker to winemaker has made Barossa what it is today, a characteristic blend of reliable convention and blistering innovation.

Business partners have become mates in the Barossa  Valley, and Tuesner pays homage to some local legends, with a line of wines that lovingly namecheck some of the region’s characters - such as the Riebke Shiraz, named for the family from whom Kym purchased his first old-vines. The Riebke family themselves are stalwarts of the valley, growing outstanding fruit on old low-yielding vines for six generations.

A harmonious and multi-generational approach is at the core of Barossa’s wine industry; a deep mutually-respectful working relationship between storied grape-growing families - meticulous custodians of heirloom vines - and a talented network of winemakers dedicated to embracing and enhancing the vibrant traditions of the region and conserving and celebrating vines which have been there right from the start.

 Taste some of the living history of the Barossa with our picks of the Teusner bunch:

Independent Shiraz Mararo 2021

As independent as the team behind it, this wine is jam-packed with Barossa Shiraz and Mataro  flavours....plums, black fruits and warm spices of cinnamon, nutmeg and 5-spice. Old Vine fruit in the blend and a restrained use of oak pushes some deeper notes of mocha and black olive, and soft tannins lead to an elegant silky finish. Make the independent choice, and you will not be disappointed. 

Righteous Single Vineyard Mataro 2018

A great vintage in Barossa, and exemplified in this single-vineyard expression. Sourced from Survivor Vines planted in 1940s at Moppa, gently pressed and matured in 30% new French oak for 18 months. The Righteous offers concentrated fruit with a dense flavour profile. Suave and sophisticated, this is a wine which will mature happily for another 15 years+.

Joshua GMS 2023

Where it all began. From the first vintage, this Grenache-heavy GMS (Greanche, Shiraz Mataro) blend has been captivating. Bottled early in a Nouveau style to showcase the fruit to the fullest, the Joshua gets some whole berries in the ferment a gentle extraction and pressing after a week of maceration. Unoaked as it has been since 2002, this is ripe, rich, and fruit forward Barossa, featuring Grenache fruit form the Hoffman and Fromm Old Vine vineyards (planted 1972 and 1960, respectively).