Château Tanunda Winery (Tanunda, Australia)
Adelaide is the capital city of the state of South Australia, with its climate and rolling hills within the surroundings no wonder there are at least 200 cellar doors within an hour drive and these cellar doors are located in world renowned regions like the Barossa Valley.
The Barossa Valley is a renowned wine producing region northeast of Adelaide and I have been there and tried several cellar doors mostly in the Tanunda area. Shiraz grapes are the local speciality and if you are here that type of wine is what you need to try.
One of the first cellars I visited was this Château Tanunda Winery, considered to be the most significant winery buildings in the Barossa Valley due to its bluestone bricks from Bethany, Glasgow cast iron, and French oak, it is a designated monument in the Australian Register of State Heritage places. Definitely a building full of character and history.
Before even visiting this place, on our conference we already started our own wine tasting, was not able to take a photo of the first 4 wines but the last one was the most significant and important. Apparently was only sold to the one with great wine knowledge and we have one on our group.
Rockford Basket Press Shiraz 2008 (AU $199.99 per bottle) was that wine, it is for traditionalist, with the old school style label and bottle this Shiraz has a great has garnered a unique and cult following. Like most Shiraz this wine is big, bold, tasty and fruity notes of blackberry and cherry, hints of chocolate and coffee beans. A good cellar wine.
Big, bold and upfront fruit with all the lashings of chocolate, coffee bean and Christmas cake all have come to adore. The 2008 Rockford was borne out of a warm, sunshine rich vintage that has produced a foreboding wine with all the traditional characters of blackberry and cherry. Drinking wonderfully well in its youth, some medium to long term cellaring will greatly benefit this Barossa legend.
After our own tasting, we headed to the Chateau and had more tasting. A winery that produces wines from the grape varieties Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, Chardonnay and Riesling we grabbed several bottles from each variety.
Let’s start with Grand Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 (AU $25.00 per bottle), this wine was aromatic and easy to drink. Scent from blackcurrant, blackberry and vanilla then accompanied by hints of dark berry fruits.
Next up was the Grand Barossa Dry Riesling 2017 (AU $25.00 per bottle), As the name suggest its dry but refreshing, lime aroma and citrus fruits dominate, it’s great with any seafood, while Barossa is popular with its Shiraz this Riesling is exceptional sourced from 90-year-old vines
Then we had this Grand Barossa Shiraz 2016 (AU $25.00 per bottle), a wine that represents Barossa Valley. Black pepper, plums and blackberry aroma with hints of spicy, dark berry fruits on the palate. Its deep, lively and a full-bodied wine.
For the fourth wine we had this Terroirs of the Barossa Marananga Shiraz 2016 (AU $49.50 per bottle), this is even more intense Shiraz tastes of jam, cardamom and fruitcake, cocoa and blueberry fruits, it is complex.
There are many more wines on offer like this Chateau Tanunda’s 100-Year-Old Vines Semillon 2013 which was served at the cocktail function at the G20 Summit, it was said that it was a hit with President Barack Obama. But good times have and end, and since we are we are moving on to our next cellar, we can’t have more due to schedule constraints, anyways the next cellar is even more special than this one, follow this space to find out why.
Anyways we had a great time, amazing wines and I learned a lot on this visit. The history of the place and its vines which makes the wines here even more special.
Château Tanunda
Address: 9 Basedow Rd, Tanunda SA 5352, Australia
Phone: +61 8 8563 3888
Website: https://www.chateautanunda.com/
