Barossa Valley, South Australia
The best thing is to quote John Russell at this point :
"Along with music, wine has long been a passion of mine. When I first came to the Barossa to start a music festival I fell in love with the region and its lifestyle, and was inspired to become a grape grower and winemaker. I invite you to share in this journey and enjoy the wines created from our own vineyards. "
John still sells a lot of grapes to some of the best known names in the Valley and as all of these wines are quite superb it is quite obvious from the first approach that John's wines will become a benchmark for other Barossa producers. They are rich full flavoured with great oak integration.
Starting with the Augusta then the St Vincent and finishing with the Greenock Farm this is the Barossa at its' finest.
All wines are made by Shawn Kalleske
Now here's a thing :
I have always stated with feeling that the BV to me was Shiraz and Coonawarra was Cabernet until I tried the Russell Cabernet. This Cabernet is quite frankly one of the best wines that I have tried in a very long time and my theory is now shot.
If you want quality and a most amazing complete wine , rush out and buy the 2005 right now as this Cabernet is my wine of the year to date !
John was kind enough to send over some 2001 Museum Release Shiraz which I think demonstrates where all of the Russell wines will advance : that deep complex dark plum colour with intense berry character - we will try to source more Museum Release so watch this space !
HOLD THE PRESSES !
Further supplies of the 2001 Museum Release will be in store on Thursday April 2 - why not either telephone or call in to reserve your stock - ?
John has just advised that a 2001 Museum Release Grenache will also be released shortly.
Reviews by Wine Club members
John Russell has delivered a lovely example of Barossa Shiraz with this, his “second label”. I prepared myself for something big when the deep purple/red was poured into the glass and was looking superb. As I put the glass up to the light, I noticed there was a little too much sediment at the bottom for my liking. However, it would seem I was just unlucky, as the other two glasses didn’t show anything. The sediment didn’t take anything away from the nose with strong licorice and chocolate flavours combined with lots of up front blackberry and dark fruits. The palate was superb with plenty of berry fruit and hints of black pepper, licorice, dark chocolate, and spice. The flavours were rich and the tannins and oak were well developed, indicative of the five years aged in the bottle. The alcohol (14.9%) was not overpowering, but strong enough to give a touch of that “hot” element that you would expect from a $50 bottle of Barossa Shiraz. A lovely drink that looks great on the shelf with a very elegant label and navy blue closure. In my opinion, it is difficult to find this quality of wine for under $50, so this is great value for money. Further cellaring will be rewarded, as I was very lucky to recently enjoy a 2001 cellar release of this wine, which was quite superb also.