Category:Barossa Valley

August 29
Meet The Maker Wine Sessions – Brian Conway of Izway and Trapeze Wines

Winter has well and truly set in and this Saturdays Meet The Maker Wine Session has more than enough juicy goodness from the Barossa Valley for you to get your lips around. People, I give you Brian Conway of Izway Wines and Trapeze Wines.

Izway wines was conceived on a handshake between two Aussie wine makers in a chateau in Beaujolais. Brian Conway and Craig Isbel met during vintage at Chateau de Bluizard in 2002 and after many nights drinking pastis they decided to start their own winery in the Barossa Valley.

Brian’s love of wine began when his old man shared a bottle of Dom with him one New Years Eve. He is certainly glad he ditched the party to stay home and drink something that would render him speechless and inspire him to pursue a career in the wine industry.

So make sure you make some time this Saturday, September 1st from 3-6ish, and come in and have a wee sip from one of the WINE STORE | WINE BARS favourite wine makers.

And don’t forget that it is Fathers Day the following day. We’re sure your Dad would love one of Brian’s ace wines this Sunday.

July 20
1 For, 2 For, 3 For…. Butch Morgan Barossa Valley Shiraz

It’s winter. It’s cold. In winter we drink red wine. Shiraz red wine. And 1 bottle is invariably never enough. Four bottles might be too many so two and/or three it is. Huzzah!!!

So what better way to kick off our 1 For, 2 For, 3 For…. deals then by show-casing a store fave: Butch Morgan Barossa Valley Shiraz 2013. Gorgeous dark fruit in the way of blood plum and intense ripe blackberry. The palate starts as the nose finishes with ace wet earth, spice and even a little bit of black olive tapenade. Bloody luv ya Butch xx

July 5
#TryJuly – #5 Tappo Barossa Valley Shiraz 2014

This is as quintessential as a big and juicy and rich and ripe Aussie Shiraz as you’ll get. And it’s only $20!!!!!tappo

The Tappo Barossa Valley Shiraz 2014 has got winter crowd pleaser written all over it. This is the type of Shiraz where the fruit was left hanging out in the hot South Oz sun so it would develop all those big and gutsy flavours that work so well in the depths of winter; big dark and rich fruit, spice, length and most importantly, #ACE flavour in spades. And again, it’s only, and is always $20

Drink wearing a cozy woolie jumper while tucking in to a hearty stew.

July 17
Izway Barossa Valley “Mates” Grenache/Mataro 2012

To state the bleeding obvious, winter is here and geez is it bloody cold!!! Seriously, this is the coldest winter I have had since 1997 in France – that was cold. I think the big reason for the ‘coldicity’ (just made a word up) is that autumn was also cold, so I guess it is ‘cold2’. Now with this coldicity upon us one of the great cures is red wine, and this wine I think may just be that cure, that saviour if you will. The Izway “Mates” Grenache/Mataro 2012 from the Barossa Valley is exactly the wine that is made for cold weather. Why you ask? Just is, is the short answer. But that will not suffice.

The nose has layers of complex aromas of autumnal earth – think wet tilled earth, master stock and rich dark fruit. The palate again has complex and rich notes of mushroom soy, spice, master stock, and rich and velvety dark fruit.

It’s also poring#BTG in the wine bar right now!!!

It’s truly delish and $28 always

March 13
Torbreck ‘The Steading’ 2011 – A gem from a tough mother of a vinatge

SteadingFor those in the know, the 2011 vintage was tough. Real TOUGH. Pretty much the entire SE Australian growing regions suffered from either mildew rot, under ripe fruit or both. A great many producers didn’t even bother picking due to not been aloud to spray Copper/Sulfur because of organic/bio certification.

So when a lot of 2011 wines were first released a lot of ‘wine experts’ out there pretty much wrote them off due to them being products of a tough vintage. A lot of producers have even said to me that wine buyers wouldn’t even look at the 2011 gear just because of said wine experts comments. Pretty dumb really. It doesn’t cost anything to have an opinion but you will always be found out when you rely on the opinion of others.

So then, to the wine from 2011. The Torbreck ‘The Steading’ Barossa Valley Grenach/Shiraz/Mataro 2011. In vintages past this wine has been big and brooding and quintessential Barossa Alpha wine. A cooler vintage however has created a more perfumed and elegant beast.

I must add here that these days I don’t generally rate wines by variety but more so to style and flavour; so many varieties these days are interchangable that to do it just on variety would I reckon negate so many other parameters. But I digress.

Back to the wine. The nose has a very pronounced floral and spice edge to it with dried rose petals and roasted brown spice mixing it up. The palate starts very elegant with tart blackberry coming through. The mid palate almost feels green with an almost soft hoppy note that are it’s tannins which then moves in to a black olive tapenadey feel; real concentrated black olive. A cracking wine from one tough muffa of a vintage.

Drink with a fancy steak sanga and $40 always