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The sensational vintages of St John's Road were generations in the making, the fruit of grand old vineyards and the progeny of families which have tilled Barossa soil since early settlement. The landed gentry along St John's Road represent a heritage of the most distinguished names in Australian viticulture, Lehmann and Lienert, Zander, Kalleske and Schutz. With each vintage, they earmark small parcels of the most exceptional Barossa fruit, to be treated to a course of traditional open ferments and term of age in the finest French oak. Bearing such pious Lutheran monikers as Prayer Garden and Resurrection Vineyard, these sacred sites are planted to some of the oldest clones in the world. St John's.. Brought to you by barossa born & bred»
The mean gravelly soils and invigorating climes of Mount Barker of the Australian southwest, were identified during the 1960s by the world's leading viticulturalists, as a place uncannily similar to the great terroirs and clime of Bordeaux. The pioneering vines of Forest Hill were the first ever planted here, sired from rootstock of ancient Houghton clones, inaugurally vintaged by the illustrious Jack Mann in 1972. The Cabernet and Riesling of Forest Hill were promptly distinguished by multiple trophy victories and praised by gentleman James Halliday as the most remarkable wines to come out of the Australian west. Forest Hill have remained a source of the most profoundly structured, intensely focused,.. Softly spoken wonders from the west»
Boutique winemaking affords great advantages, every vine can be uniquely husbanded, quality control is maximised, each barrel can be individually sampled and assembled into the perfect cuvee. Engineering types are innately suited to such viticulture. Colin Best embarked upon his sabbatical to the great vineyards of Burgundy's Cote d'Or. He returned to plant Pinot Noir on a craggy half hectare near Lobethal in the Adelaide Hills. An ancient masonry wool mill was outfitted for winemaking and Leabrook Estate was born. This is an aesthetic range of meticulously crafted, limited vintages, fashioned for the aficianado of bespoke, small batch, little vineyard wines... The lobethal libations of leabrook»

Turkey Flat Ancestor Shiraz CONFIRM VINTAGE

Shiraz Barossa South Australia
Established 1847 by Johann August Frederick Fiedler, much of the credit for the finest Shiraz in the world is due to old vines such as Turkey Flat. Dry grown and gnarled, their roots extend metres into the soil in search of moisture. That they still exist is largely due to a far sighted quarantine scheme, as South Australia was spared the phylloxera outbreak which devastated vineyards around the world in the late 1800s. After five generations of stewardship by the Schulz family, a small parcel of fruit from the original 1847 vines is bottled as a superior vintage release.
The historic Turkey Flat property, located within Section One of the Hundred of Moorooroo, is planted to rich, alluvial soils, adjacent to Bethany Creek at Tanunda. The site was sold to Gottlieb Ernst Schulz in 1865, a successful butcher who established a thriving retail business among the vines. Butchering developed into dairying, but the vineyards were always kept, until Peter and Christie Schulz made the transition from fruit growing to winemaking. The distinctive script on the Ancestor label is drafted from the 1888 Schulz family butchers ledger, discovered while restoring the Turkey Flat property in 1992.
Turkey Flat
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Turkey Flat
Turkey Flat is more than just a vineyard and home to one of the best Barossa wines, it is a family business that forms a vital part of the region's rich cultural history and heritage

It was here, on the banks of Tanunda Creek where bush turkeys once roamed, that pioneer Silesian settler Johann Friedrich August Fiedler planted the first Shiraz vines in 1843. His vines flourished and the land Section One, in the Hundred of Moorooroo was bought in 1865 by Gottlieb Ernst Schulz, a successful butcher who established a thriving retail business among the vines. Butchering developed into dairying, but the vineyards were always kept, until Peter, a fourth generation Schulz, and his wife, Christie, made the transition from grape growing to winemaking.

Turkey Flat

They transformed the historic bluestone butchers shop into the cellar door and heart of their Turkey Flat wine business, and made sure that the vines that Fiedler planted so long ago, now gnarled and twisted, are still a vital part of the process. And with good reason, for it is the intense, concentrated fruit from these ancient vines that set Turkey Flat wines apart and have made them sought after the world over.

Turkey Flat is the local name for the vineyard property and is believed to be so named by the original settlers in the late1840s after the large flocks of native bush turkeys (Australian Bustard) in the area. Turkey Flat wines are made from four individual vineyard estates, all owned by Peter and Christie Schulz. The original Section One vineyard has the Shiraz, Grenache and small parcels of Mataro and Semillon.

The highly regarded Cabernet Sauvignon is grown on the banks of the Bethany Creek in a small picturesque vineyard surrounded by ancient gum trees. Turkey Flat's Ros is made from the Menge Road estate Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache and Dolcetto vines, all grown specifically for this purpose. The Butchers Block blend of Mataro, Shiraz and Grenache is sourced from the Stonewell estate. This vineyard is planted on a unique combination of red-brown earth soils (terra rosa) on a unique underlying limestone base. Stonewell is also planted to Marsanne.

Turkey Flat

Most of the Turkey Flat vineyards survive only on natural rainfall, and where supplementary water is applied this is done so in very small amounts, and only to maintain healthy leaves and not to increase production. The vineyard yields vary from ten tonne/hectare at Ros to a mean two tonne/hectare for Shiraz.

"The establishment date of Turkey Flat is given as 1990 but it might equally well have been 1870 (or thereabouts), when the Schulz family purchased the Turkey Flat vineyard, or 1847, when the vineyard was first planted to the very old shiraz which still grows there today alongside 8 ha of equally old grenache. Plantings have since expanded significantly, now (in total) comprising shiraz (24 ha), grenache (10.5 ha), cabernet sauvignon (4.7 ha), mataro (3.7 ha) marsanne (2.2 ha), viognier (1 ha), roussanne (0.6 ha) and dolcetto (0.5 ha)." -James Halliday

"The Barossa’s winemaking history started in the mid 1840s when the first commercial vineyards were planted by August Fielder, the Aldenhoven brothers and Johann Gramp (from which sprang Orlando). Shiraz vines planted in 1847, adjacent to Jacobs Creek just outside Tanunda, are still productive today. Although probably used originally to make a sweet port style, today’s tiny yields make a wonderful dry Shiraz under Peter and Christie Schulz’s Turkey Flat label." -Chris Shanahan.com

All of the Turkey Flat wines are made in the Bethany Road winery using traditional open fermenters. Barrel fermentation is followed by maturation in new and seasoned French oak hogsheads and barriques. Climate controlled barrel hall estate bottling further enhances the quality and delicacy of Turkey Flat wines.

Turkey Flat