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Wine Description
The Story
Robert O’Callaghan’s Rockford Basket Press Shiraz encapsulates traditional and contemporary winemaking philosophies and embraces the inherent qualities of old vine Shiraz: the physicality of winemaking where muscle and personal touch transform process into an artform; the traditional tools of trade (a 1910 petrol-driven old Bagshaw destemmer, basket press, open fermenters) and the complementary nuances of American and French oak maturation.
Robert O’Callaghan is one of the most important figures in contemporary Australian winemaking. He was early to recognise the future of regional definition, the importance of heritage and the conservation of both physical and viticultural resources. Chris Ringland, who worked at Rockford for around 18 years, said “working with Robert was to present an extraordinary opportunity in gaining an understanding of the traditional Australian wine trade. Just as he had learned the winemaking elements of previous generations, so we were to use the distillation of this experience in establishing winemaking philosophy at Rockford. The techniques were simple, the principles sound.”
O’Callaghan’s commitment to labour-intensive techniques for the sake of going the extra mile in quality makes Rockford Basket Press the quintessential hand-made wine. The fruit, from 60-140 year-old vines, is sourced from local growers in the Barossa including around Kalimna, Ebenezer, Moppa Springs, the Eden Valley and Central Barossa giving fruit of tremendous colour, power and richness.
Rockford Basket Press Shiraz is made in the classic mould with strong, ripe, blackberry and fine chocolate fruit characters, underscored by well-seasoned American and French oak and ripe tannins. The wines are beautifully balanced and have a reputation for freshness and aging. They develop paneforte/ dark chocolate aromas and further richness and complexity on the palate.
Rockford Basket Press is very traditional and stands very much apart from the compressed and monumentally rich Barossa Shirazes favoured and championed by elements of the cult wine scene. It has an understated power, balance and minerality that evoke the character of the fruit and the vintage. The oak is never at the fore. Rockford Basket Press is a maturation style reminiscent of Barossa wines made during the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s. The overall freshness, buoyancy and suppleness reflect contemporary winemaking philosophy.
Rockford Basket Press Shiraz has been produced every vintage since its inaugural release in 1984. More than any other wine Basket Press Shiraz represents what Rockford is all about.
It has much in common with other handcrafted quality produce in that it draws heavily on the wisdom and shared knowledge of previous generations of Australian winemakers and recognises that at the heart of every great wine is a great vineyard.
Full-bodied Australian Shiraz has now taken its rightful place amongst the great wines of the world and Basket Press Shiraz is considered one of the benchmark styles of Barossa Shiraz.
Vintage 2017
AUSTRALIA VINTAGE REPORT: The 2017 winegrape crush is estimated to be 1.93 million tonnes, based on responses received by the Wine Sector Survey 2017. This crush is 5 per cent higher than the 2016 final crush figure of 1.84 million tonnes (Department of Agriculture and Water Resources – Levies recorded figure). It is the third consecutive vintage where the tonnes crushed have increased.
Additional tonnes this year came relatively equally from the cool and temperate regions of Australia and the warm inland regions (Riverina, Murray Darling-Swan Hill and Riverland). However, the tonnes from the cool and temperate regions increased by 9 per cent compared to a 3 per cent increase in the warm inland regions.
Most regions recorded an increase in tonnes crushed including: Riverland, Riverina, Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Coonawarra, Clare Valley, Wrattonbully, Margaret River, King Valley, Eden Valley, Heathcote, Tasmania, Orange, Gundagai, Grampians, Hunter Valley, Hilltops, Alpine Valleys and Rutherglen.
Regions where the tonnes crushed declined in 2017 included Murray Darling-Swan Hill, Langhorne Creek, Padthaway, Adelaide Hills, Currency Creek, Goulburn Valley, Cowra, Swan District, Mount Benson, Robe and Mudgee.
The 2017 red variety crush is estimated to be 1,062,660 tonnes – an increase of 112,000 tonnes (up 12 per cent) compared with 2016. The white variety crush is estimated to be 866,970 tonnes, a decrease of 19,000 tonnes (down 2 per cent) compared with 2016. Red varieties increased their share of the crush to 55 per cent, compared with 52 per cent in 2016.
The top three red varieties by volume were Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, together accounting for 85 per cent of the total red crush. Shiraz accounted for 47 per cent of the red crush (up slightly from 2016) while the Cabernet Sauvignon share fell from 27 per cent to 26 per cent and Merlot remained at 12 per cent.
Among the whites, Chardonnay remains the dominant variety. However, its share fell from 47 per cent in 2016 to 42 per cent this year with the Chardonnay crush down 13 per cent.
2017 will also be a good year for Grenache. It’s a grape whose time has come, and has indeed been coming for a few years. It’s a warm-climate grape that does particularly well in regions such as McLaren Vale. Now that consumers have got over their strange obsession with dark colour and lots of structure in their red wines, Grenache is allowed to do what it does best: make elegant, perfumed, somewhat lighter-coloured reds that are the equivalent of the Pinot Noir of the warmer climates.
Pinot Noir is also going from strength to strength, and superb examples are coming from Tasmania, Mornington Peninsular, Macedon Ranges and cooler parts of the Yarra Valley. 2017 will be a good year for Pinot, and also for Australian wines’ cool climate regions generally.
Chardonnay is one grape where there has been a shift in style, and 2017 could see it become even more interesting. ‘As you’re well aware there’s been a trend for quite a few years for "size zero” Chardonnay, early picked, skinny and with a very strong sulphidy character,’ says Wildman. ‘The better examples of these wines have dominated at the wine shows and therefore have further driven the style (think Vasse Felix Heytesbury, Penfolds Bin A, Oakridge 864). ’However, this style of Chardonnay has come under criticism because it’s almost as if the foot has been made to fit the slipper, and they aren’t actually all that nice to drink. As a consequence, Wildman notes, there are now fewer wines in this skinny-sulphidy style being seen. ‘The pendulum seems to have swung back (rapidly) towards the middle ground, where the wines have some weight, texture and ripeness, are not afraid of some new oak, and the sulphides have been dialed back to just a whisper of struck match, making the wines not too skinny, not too fat, but "just right”.’ He reckons that as the 2016 wines hit the shelves next year this trend for more balanced wines will increase.
