KALLESKE WINERY

In South Australia's Barossa Valley, the Kalleske family have been farming and growing grapessince the 1800s near the village of Greenock. They are one of the regions leading grape-growinggrowing grapes, winemaker and sixth generation family member Troy Kalleske, along with hisbrother Tony established the Kalleske winery and created the Kalleske label.

The winery is situated on the family estate to maintain full control and ensuring the vineyard realizes its full potential as wine. All wines are estate grown and vinified with minimalistic winemaking techniques,using open top fermenters and gentle basket pressing to fully capture the essence of the vineyardallowing genuine hand made estate wines to be produced.The vineyard is managed by their father, fifth generation grape grower, John Kalleske, who hasover forty years experience tending the vineyard.

The 100 acre vineyard is planted to Shiraz, Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon, Semillon and Chenin Blanc. Vines vary in age with the oldestvineyard dating back to 1875 and an overall average vine age of about 50 years. The vineyard islow yielding with all grapes grown organically and the winery is certified organic.There are eight wines in the Kalleske range. Lorraine Late Harvest Semillon is a luscious dessertwine.

Florentine Chenin Blanc is a part barrel fermented dry white wine, with a rich texture buthas a lingering crisp finish . Clarry’s Grenache & Shiraz is a blend of vineyards dating back to the1940s. The Moppa Shiraz is a stylish wine with a dash of something extra (Viognier and PetitVerdot), giving it a contemporary edge. The Greenock Shiraz is a single vineyard wine, madefrom a superb Shiraz block on the Western edge of the Greenock Creek. The Old Vine Grenacheis from a small dry-grown vineyard planted as bush vines on the Kalleske farm in 1935 and theJohann Georg Shiraz is made from a dry-grown vineyard planted on the farm in 1875.

The range is completed with a sublime liqueur wine, JMK Shiraz VP.Since the first wine release in 2004, Kalleske has rapidly gained a reputation for producing top-quality hand crafted wines. Kalleske has rated extremely highly amongst critics with US winewriter Robert Parker Jr. scoring all Kalleske wines in the high nineties and hailing Kalleske as“one of the greatest revelations of his Australian tastings this year”. Renowned Australian winereviewer, James Halliday, described Kalleske as “an outstanding winery regularly producing ex-emplary wines”, and he lists Kalleske as one of the ten best new wineries in Australia. FellowAustralian wine critic, Campbell Mattinson, described Kalleske as “the most exciting new brand from the Barossa in 20 years”. Wines from Kalleske have been six generations in the making, but they’re certainly worth the wait!

Article contributed by Sally Kalleske