Dutschke - Barossa Valley

2007 St. Jakobi

Shiraz

In 1934 my Grandfather, Oscar Semmler purchased a vineyard and grazing property across the road from where he and his brothers grew up. This property is located on the southern side of Lyndoch in the Barossa Valley, along side of the “St. Jakobi” Lutheran church and school. It is in the St Jakobi Church where my great grandparents, grandparents, parents and Brenda and myself have all been married.

The grapes for our “St. Jakobi” Shiraz come from a small 6-acre planting of vines planted in 1975 by Ken Semmler (Oscar’s son & my uncle) on this family property. We’ve been blessed by having this patch of vineyard in a region that consistently produces good quality fruit year after year.

The Shiraz from this special 6-acre planting typically gives us wines that are rich in spice, dark cherry and chocolate characters with great structure for longevity in the bottle.

The spring and summer of 2006 leading into the 2007 Vintage was extremely dry and as a result crop levels for the 2007 harvest were very low. The drought conditions brought our harvest date forward by around a month. Instead of harvesting in the middle of March the grapes were harvested during the second week of February and this 6-acre block of “St Jakobi” Shiraz gave us just over 1 tonne per acre. Although the quantity of 2007 St Jaks is much less than what we are used to producing, the quality and structure still stands proud.

Fermentation took place in open fermenters and the wine was then matured in a combination of both French and American oak hogsheads, supplied by nine different coopers. After 20 months we blended the wines from these barrels to make a wine of complexity that shows the full potential of the Shiraz fruit we grow on this precious patch of ground. We trust you’ll enjoy it!