2021 Shobbrook Rosé
WINEMAKER: Tom Shobbrook
VARIETAL: Nebbiolo, Aglianico
REGION: Barossa Valley/Riverland, SA
VITICULTURE: Organic
Our 2021 Rose, although a tad richer in colour to the beautiful Salmon hue I usually prefer. I mixed it up a bit this year and have arrived at a style I really like. The rose is a blend of Grenach, Syrah and Cinsault, the last of these being a skin/berry component, all hailing from the sands of Vine Vale. The juice of the Grenache and Syrah, whole bunch pressed, is run over the whole berries of the cinsault to bring spice and aid the Grenache in fermentation.
Alongside the likes of James Erskine (Jauma) and Anton van Klopper (Lucy M), Tom Shobbrook is one of the most important figures in Australian natural wine. "After 12 years of growing grapes and making wines on our farm in Seppeltsfield things have come to an end. We now have 2 hectares of vines in Flaxman Valley which will give us some fruit in the harvest of 2019. It won't be much but it will be very exciting to taste fruit from the vines we grew from cuttings in our nursery at home. We will eventually end up with around 5 hectares of vines and a mixed orchard of fruit and nut trees. The Farm sits at 540 meters above the ocean. The soils are old and acidic consisting of sandy loam over yellow orange clay. The sandy loam profile is scattered with rose quartz while the clay layers have shadows of mica."