Spellbinding renditions of Barossa terroir…
Ben Glaetzer already had his hands on Ebenezer fruit in his mid-teens. Helping out as a harvest hand while his father called the shots at the Barossa Valley Estate collective, he got an early handle on what made this northern subregion so special. Purity on the nose, a palate of intense fruit and savoury tannin, and the best natural balance the Glaetzers saw from any of these vineyards.
Ebenezer was the cornerstone of the Glaetzer label when it was launched in the mid-90s. With Ben at the helm, Ebenezer is the alpha and omega. The lion’s share of the fruit grown in this district goes into one of the four wines that make up Ben’s range.
Collectively, Wallace, Bishop, Anaperenna and Amon-Ra are wines of Ebenezer. Individually, they are wines of localised dirt. Ben harvests vine by vine by soil type, those decades of familiarity informing how the parcels of Shiraz, Grenache and Cabernet shape the wines. The often ancient vines are planted north to south, and the soil types run east to west, traversing this old riverbed with silt, clay, limestone and sand.
The more vigorous silt and clay tend to give bigger berries, juicier, fleshier fruit and rounder tannins. The richest clay is ideal for Wallace, where approachability and moreishness are key. Shiraz vines aged up to 80 years old and up to 100-year-old Grenache are a ludicrous luxury at this price point, and the 2023 is perhaps the most immediately delicious ever. Bishop, too, benefits from the fruit-forward, easygoing charm of the clay-grown Shiraz, again with vine age (up to 120 years) and low yields giving layers you can riffle through at your leisure.
As you get into the meagre sandy soils and their miserly yields, you’re in Anaperenna and Amon-Ra territory. Perfume is dialled up, and the smaller berries and their skins give more brooding depth with dried spice, black pepper and liquorice. The tannins on this pure, later-ripening fruit are finer and firmer, forming a finish of substance and sapidity.
It is no accident that Anaperenna and Amon-Ra are such spellbinding renditions of a Barossa terroir; wines that pull you into their realm and paint a place on your memory. Boy to man, Ben Glaetzer has fallen heart and soul for Ebenezer, and his wines are a liquid shrine to this rare, ancient earth. The long, gentle 2023 growing season has yielded another quartet of captivating offerings.
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2023 Wallace Shiraz Grenache
$25 per bottle
This presents well. It’s warm with alcohol but the flavours are solid and attractive. It tastes of peppercorns and plums, raspberry and an assortment of florals and spices. Tannin too has been well managed and while the aftertaste brings a subtle saltiness, it doesn’t interfere. You have to be alcohol-heat tolerant perhaps but most red wine drinkers would enjoy this. 91 points. Campbell Mattinson, The Winefront 2023 Bishop Shiraz Sweet fruit flavour is delivered ripe and ready. Redcurrant and plum flavours balloon through the palate, bringing clove and mint characters along for the ride. It’s not complex but there’s a lot of flavour here. 91 points. Campbell Mattinson, The Winefront 2023 Anaperenna Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon A deeply fruited and consistently excellent shiraz cabernet from Ben Glaetzer. It’s an 82/18% split of old-vine fruit sourced from the famed northern subregion of Ebenezer. Dark plum, blackberry and black cherry fruits dredged with baking spices, licorice, cedar, vanilla pod, olive tapenade, fruitcake, pan juices and earth. Full bodied, with a seam of fresh acidity, powdery, chocolatey tannins and a sense of harmony and balance as the flavours stretch themselves out nicely. 95 points Dave Brookes, Halliday Wine Companion 2023 Amon Ra Shiraz Jeez, the Amon-Ra is in fine form with this release. There’s the sense of compression and fruit density that you’d expect from Ebenezer-born fruit, but there is detail and freshness to its form. Nothing is overbearing or blown out; everything is nicely in balance. Glossy blackberry, blueberry and damson plum fruit with hints of baking spices, earth, fruitcake, dark chocolate bullets, wood spice, pan juices, violets and vanillin oak. Full-bodied and purely fruited, with a swell of fine, powdery tannins and a finish that stretches out beautifully. Very nicely done indeed! 96+ points Dave Brookes, Halliday Wine Companion |
