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Basket Press Shiraz - 2003 - Rockford Wines
Ref: A114603
Barossa Valley

The 2003 Basket Press Shiraz is a complete and utter stunner. It's the nineteenth release of this wine and is so concentrated and powerful that it will last for years. It's a bit worrying, but Robert Parker also likes the wine, "Made from 60 to 140 year old vines by winemaker Chris Ringland and the Barossa wine producer Robert O'Callaghan, Rockford's 2003 Basket Press Shiraz exhibits a beautiful minerality, a lovely floral note to its blackberry and cassis fruit, and hints of pepper, old oak and garrigue. This complex, full-bodied effort possesses power, richness and, much like its proprietor, considerable personality. Drink it over the next fifteen plus years. 94 points."

In 1971, Rocky O’Callaghan bought one and a half hectares of vineyards in Krondorf, in the deep south of the Barossa, and came up with the vineyard name of Rockford, a loose anagram of Krondorf! O’Callaghan believes in recapturing the wine-making processes and traditions of the late 19th Century and, whilst his colleagues fit out their wineries with the latest state-of-the art equipment, he buys their cast-offs and hunts around for such items as antique basket presses. Most of Rockford’s grapes are bought-in from 30-odd ‘grower-friends’ whose low-yielding, ‘dry-land’ bush vines are often anything up to 140 years’ old. O’Callaghan personally supervises the picking at each of the growers and all the grapes are picked at optimum maturity. O’Callaghan has a reputation for not compromising and this can be clearly seen in the sheer quality of his wines.

It seems crazy that in the late 80's the South Australian state government offered to pay growes to pull up their old vine vineyards! Rocky O'Callaghan rallied the growers, persuading them not to do so and therefore saved a national treasure. He was also a major influence on the revival of the Barossa's fortunes in the 1990's, during which the Barossa's reputation for producing top class wines was forged.

Rockford's wines have an iconic postion in Australian wines today. The legendary Basket Press Shiraz is one of only eleven wines awarded the rating of 'exceptional' in Langton's Classification of Australian wines.

Price: £26.91
Including VAT at 17.5%

Qty:

Australia (South Australia)	2003	Full Bodied
Syrah/Shiraz	Red	Cheese/Beef/Venison
Rockford Wines	Medium	Best laid down

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