Bethany Shiraz 2005

NOTES

Johann Gottlob Schrapel and his family arrived in South Australia from Silesia on the ship “George Washington” in 1844, just eight years after the colony was settled. Like many of their fellow Germanic migrants they made their way by ox cart to Bethany, the Barossa Valley’s first settlement, where they established a home and cleared the land to grow crops and graze animals. The Schrapel’s planted their first vineyard in 1852 from cuttings carefully nursed from Europe. A wine cellar was also built, but despite Johann’s reputation as an early colonial winemaker, the family concentrated on grape growing rather than winemaking for the next four generations.

More than a century later in 1981, Johann’s fifth generation descendants, brothers Geoff and Robert Schrapel, established Bethany Wines in a quarry, where the pioneers had hewn stone for their homes, high in the Barossa Ranges overlooking the family’s vineyards and the historic village of Bethany.

TASTING NOTES

Made from hand-pruned premium quality shiraz grapes grown on the foothills of the Barossa. The climatic conditions leading up to vintage were some of the best experienced over the past five years, providing the finished wine with excellent varietal fruit and acid balance. The aroma is quite outstanding, followed by the rich, ripe blackberry and plum flavours so typical of Barossa shiraz and in particular of the Schrapel family's flagship red. In the mouth it is full-bodied and luscious with great depth of shiraz flavour, whilst the lingering finish displays seamless rich fruit, soft tannins and well integrated natural acidity.