I guess The Astral Series began to evolve from a little Grenache parcel in 2005. We ended up with one barrel of absolutely mind blowing Grenache from an 85 year old vineyard in Moppa. It was so good that we just couldn’t bear to blend it away, so instead we bottled it off into magnums so that we could decide what to do with it later. We ended up with about 130 magnums – of which we have probably uncorked 40 for personal use.

Then in 2006, we had two puncheons of possibly the best Mataro that I have seen in the Barossa Valley. I figured that if we were to continue working with these awesome parcels of fruit we needed a new label for these extraordinary wines. So The Astral Series was born. In essence, The Astral Series range will be strictly reserved for single vineyard wines which are the “ultra-performers” of any given vintage. So there will not necessarily always be a certain vineyard or variety under this label, but you can be assured that anything that makes it here will be of outstanding quality.

The 2006 Mataro was brought to us from a vigneron called Stuart Roennfeldt. He rang on the eve of vintage 06 and offered us a small parcel of 65 year old Mataro. I ventured out to have a look at the vineyard and found a Grenache block. I rang Stuart and said ‘mate, are you trying to have a lend of me? This is a Grenache block’. To which he responded ‘stop being a winemaker and actually get out of your car to have a look at the vineyard – there’s Mataro planted amongst the Grenache’. Indeed there was! It was an old school Barossa mixed planting of Grenache and Mataro. I was curious if Stuart had the faith in his pickers to determine the difference. He said he would get his family out there to do it if I wanted to take it on. We had a deal! It looked great from the very start of ferment. Loaded with aromatic Asian spice and nice round structure. I decided to mature this in 500 L barrels so as to interfere with the fruit as little as possible during it’s ageing. The result is outstanding.

“Deeply coloured with an impenetrable, inky hue the 2006 Astral Mataro is remarkably aromatic for such a muscular wine. It displays intense aromas of blackfruits...blackberry, plums and black cherries with hints of roasted meats, five spice, eucalypt and a typical Mataro earthy streak.

In the mouth the wine is full bodied and shows excellent concentration and balance. Rich blackberry, black plum and kirsch fruits abound with hints of game meats, earth, Asian spices, pepper and sweet restrained oak. This superbly structured wine demands time in the cellar and will continue to improve in the bottle over the next 15 years.”

Future wines that we have earmarked for this label include an 06 Shiraz from a 130 year old Riebke vineyard in Moppa – Simply called FG shiraz in the cellar…use your imagination for that one! And an 07 Shiraz from our Greenock grower that shows amazing structure and inky intensity.