Dutschke - Barossa Valley

2010 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 alongside the St. Jakobi Lutheran church and school. It was in the St Jakobi church where my great grandparents, grandparents, parents, as well as Brenda and I have all been married.

The grapes for our "St. Jakobi" Shiraz come from a small 6-acre patch of 32 rows 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 planting typically gives us wines that are rich in spice, dark cherry and chocolate characters, with fullness and wonderful structure for longevity in the bottle.

Conditions of the 2010 Vintage led to a slow ripening of the fruit and unrushed conditions for harvesting. This allowed us to harvest the small 32 row block on 3 separate occasions. The first pick was on the 25th of February from the 10 rows on the eastern side of the "75 Block". The following week on the 1st of March, the centre 10 rows were harvested. Three days later the remaining 12 rows on the western side of the block were picked. Harvesting on three separate occasions over an 8-day period and picking from East to West, resulted in three individual parcels of Shiraz.

Fermentation of each parcel of Shiraz was carried out in static fermenters at our winery on Gods Hill Road. Each batch of wine was transferred to a range of new and older French and American barrels, supplied to us by 9 different coopers. Using a wide range of different oak hogsheads gives us an opportunity to put together a wine of greater interest and complexity than if we were to use oak from only one supplier.

After 20 months of oak maturation we blended the wines from selected barrels to create the 2010 "St. Jakobi" Shiraz, a wine of complexity that shows the full potential of the fruit we grow on this "precious patch" of dirt.