Changing Gears in Barossa

BY ANGUS HUGHSON | JUNE 22, 2023

Although the news has been a long time coming, it's official: the days of high-octane, oak-driven Barossa Shiraz are now just a distant memory. Sure, these wines still exist, and many are excellent, so fans of the style do not have to go elsewhere to get their fix. But the pendulum has swung since the last Barossa report at Vinous in 2021, and it has swung hard. Barossa has returned to its roots, from Nascar to Formula One, without missing a beat. Typically muscular Barossan Shiraz wines with plenty of raw grunt are now joined by sleeker, age-worthy wines with subtle balance and sophistication, a theme that is repeated across a range of other Rhône grape varieties. But have no fear. These modern styles are also unmistakably Barossa. Their regional power is still in place but now more tightly controlled - Thor’s hammer in a velvet glove.

The sunset over Vine Vale in the cool 2023 vintage.

However, change has not come easily. It has, at least partly, been driven by factors outside Barossa’s control. Twenty years ago, South Australian Shiraz was riding high globally off the back of the cult wine scene that emerged around the turn of the new millennium. Prices skyrocketed for a select few as luscious Shiraz became the flavor of the month. Australia was not alone, as Bordeaux also flirted with hedonistic wines - the controversial 2003 Château Pavie perhaps the most famous example of ultra-ripe styles, while the Southern Rhône also had its fair share. As in Bordeaux and the Rhône, extravagant wines were not the dominant style, but these were the popular wines from Barossa and McLaren Vale that were getting the headlines, the listings and driving the narrative. Many winemakers hitched their wagons to the new shiny show in town.

It proved to be a false dawn. The taste for Herculean Shiraz slowly melted away across most export markets. That was no doubt a rude shock for many Barossan wineries. Their well-intentioned leap into decadent wines, encouraged by some importers and critics, saw waves of jammy, high pH, one-dimensional offerings hitting shelves worldwide. Consumer expectations were high off the back of some lofty accolades, but many of these wines simply under-delivered, especially with time in bottle, and fell over far too young.

While China managed to soak up vast volumes of Shiraz for some years, the slump in the US was, in particular, a very deep cut. What should have been a strong market, thanks to Barossan and Californian leading wines’ similar richness, was squandered. Importantly, this stylistic pivot was not across the board, and many winemakers had stuck to their knitting and traditional wine styles, sitting back as the storm raged around them, most notably some of the well-established brands who had weathered headwinds before: Yalumba, Henschke and Penfolds. Unfortunately, these wineries and the longevity of their wines were somewhat forgotten in the rush to redefine Barossa Shiraz.