Turkey Flat

It's the day that all Australian winemakers hold their breath for... the release of the new James Halliday Wine Companion and his associated scores...

We're certainly no exception & eagerly logged in (with the rest of Australia, temporarily bringing down the site - oops!) - we can say we're very happy with what we found, being listed in the top 100 wineries of Australia, and the top 10 of the Barossa just the tip of the iceberg...

THE SCORES:

2012 SHIRAZ

Deep colour; the backbone of this wine comes from the vines planted in 1847 on the Bethany Road Vineyard, some of the oldest shiraz vines in the world; French oak was used at the end of the fermentation and subsequent maturation; everything it should be from '12, with layers of black fruits, licorice, tannins and cedary oak.

96 points Drink to: 2042

2012 BUTCHERS BLOCK RED

An estate-grown 45/30/25% blend of shiraz, grenache and mourvedre. This is one of the best Barossa Valley blends of this ilk, shiraz providing both structure and depth to the seductive array of red and black fruits on the bouquet and medium-bodied palate. Truly exceptional value.

95 points Drink to: 2019

2012 CABERNET SAUVIGNON

A particularly harmonious medium-bodied cabernet; the wine had extended post-ferment maceration on skins before spending 20 months in French oak; the fruit is fully ripe, but stops well short of overripe or dead notes; the gently savoury tannins and integrated oak tie the bow on the parcel. (Available late 2014, 2011 vintage on sale now)

95 points Drink to: 2022

2013 GOBBLE:GOBBLE

A co-fermented blend of 60% whole bunch shiraz, 40% crushed grenache and (through some sleight of hand) 25% new oak. It was released on 28 Feb, available online for 1 day only, but sold out within an hour. An incredibly clever marketing exercise from start to finish, the wine itself delicious, and ready for consumption the hour it was released.

94 points Drink now

2012 GRENACHE

The grapes predominantly come from the 100+-year-old vines on the home vineyard. Very concentrated and rich, it is in the mainstream of Barossa Valley style, but a very good example of that style, packed with confit red fruits, oak providing a touch of structural complexity.

93 points Drink to: 2022

2013 BUTCHERS BLOCK WHITE

An estate-grown blend of marsanne, viognier and roussanne; barrel fermentation and maturation in used French oak produces year-in, year-out what is arguably the best example of this blend in Australia, the flavours coalescing into a single stream of flavours in the stone fruit spectrum, none in the citrus spectrum.

93 points Drink to: 2018

Congratulations must go to all Australian wineries - the Companion just keeps getting bigger & bigger each year, speaking volumes of the high quality of wine being produced here.

Now we're off for a cheeky little celebratory drink - join us, won't you?

Cheers!

The birth of Turkey Flat took place in 1847 when a far-sighted Silesian refugee Johann Frederick August Fiedler planted Shiraz vines in the rich alluvial soils adjacent to the Bethany Creek. Fiedler was the brother-in-law to Pastor August Kavel, who led the German emigrants to Australia’s Barossa Valley, and he settled on one of the first parcels of land to be surveyed in the area.

Turkey Flat is the local name for the vineyard property and is believed to be so named by the original settlers in the late 1840’s after the large flocks of native bush turkeys (Australian Bustard) in the area. Local artist Rod Schubert was commissioned for the design of the label. It is his depiction of the native bush turkey that gives bottles of Turkey Flat wine their distinctive elegance. Each wine has its own personalised turkey to distinguish them from one another.

The Turkey Flat vineyards and winery are now situated on the historic Section One property in the centre of the Barossa. The Schulz family became owners of the Turkey Flat property in around 1865 and while they continued to tend the ancient vineyard, they also developed a thriving butchers business.

The sensitively restored bluestone butchers shop is now the wine sales and private tasting room referred as 'The Butcher's Block Room' for the company.

Turkey Flat wines are made from individual vineyard estates. The original Section One vineyard has the Shiraz, Grenache and small parcels of Mourvedre, Rousanne and Viognier. The highly regarded Cabernet Sauvignon is grown on the banks of the Bethany Creek in a small picturesque vineyard surrounded by ancient gum trees. The “Butchers Block” blend of Shiraz, Grenache and Mourvedre 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. The Marsanne plantings are also at Stonewell.

Most of our 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. Our vineyard yields vary from 10 tonne/hectare for Rosé production to 2 tonne/hectare for our Shiraz.

All of the Turkey Flat wines are made in our Bethany Road winery using traditional open fermenters. We include cap plunging, cold maceration, submerged cap fermentation and “pumping over” in our winemaking. Barrel fermentation is followed by maturation in new and seasoned French oak hogsheads and barriques. Our climate controlled barrel hall as well as bottling on the estate further enhances the quality and delicacy of all of our wines.

Turkey Flat owns five vineyards spread over a radius of 20km from Bethany in the south, Stonewell in the west, with other vineyards in the east. They cover very different sub-regions and give us the ability to blend the attributes of each subregion into our wines.

To a large degree our winemaking begins in the vineyard. We spend a great deal of time managing vine vigour, controlling shoot growth as well as shoot and bunch thinning. This helps to reduce yields and open up the vines to let in the sunlight. We are also spending a lot more time trying to understand when the grapes are mature.

We are not industrial winemakers and try at all times to keep the winemaking process simple and traditional, to not interfere with the true expression of the vineyard.