2021 Torbreck The Forebear Shiraz, Barossa Valley

If The Laird is a hulking, bristling, towering Shiraz, The Forebear is the epitome of monastic calm and imperious energy.  It is a Le Musigny of the Shiraz world, with a nose off the charts and a palate finely cut and impeccably well-tailored.  This is an extraordinary wine, with sensational bravado, and it’s like the annals of history of this grape have been distilled into one bottle of ostentatious wine.  2021 The Forebear is thrilling in every way, and the tannins are unnervingly pliable and athletic, and they will protect it for years to come.

20+/20 points Matthew Jukes, June 2026

The 2021 The Forebear hails from the Hillside vineyard, and the vines that service this wine are old, planted in 1850. While the first two vintages of this wine—2019 and 2020—were both hot, dry vintages and very low yielding. The 2021 season was mild, long and dry, and the yields were healthy, which was a blessing for growers in this region after years of tiny quantities. In the mouth, the wine is rocky and mineral, fresh and full—this is a wine with concentration off the charts. To put it in context with other world wines of similar density, this is driven by the age of the ancient vines and grown like this. These are ancient soils—the northern end of the Barossa is around 450 million years old, while the southern Barossa soils are up to a billion years old; and in many cases, they are supporting ancient vines, and the power and concentration of the fruit is at times difficult to understand without experiencing it in person. This vineyard is the single oldest site that Torbreck owns and sources from. Drink to 2051.

99 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, April 2026

This is from Torbreck’s oldest single vineyard, planted in Lyndoch in 1850. It was first made in 2019, and half is aged in new French oak, half in new Stockinger (Austrian oak). Aromatic, intense and floral with sweet black cherry and blackberry fruit. Linear and textural with some creaminess. Real concentration and intensity with nice salty detail. Sleek and polished, ripe and vivid, amazing focus.

97 points Jamie Goode for Wineanorak, May 2026

Deep crimson. Beautifully concentrated blackberry, panforte, espresso aromas with graphite, hint tobacco, smoky bacon notes. Dense chocolaty blackberry, stewed plum, panforte, roasted coffee, flavours, plentiful gravelly, chewy tannins, underlying roasted chestnut, marzipan notes and balanced fresh acidity. A tawny/tobacco complexity at the finish with fresh long acidity. Very complex and individual. Historic vineyard. 1850 Shiraz plantings. Now–2045

96 points Andrew Caillard and Jeni Port for The Vintage Jornal, August 2026

The Forebear is crafted from the original 12 rows of ancient Shiraz vines planted by the Springbett family which represent an irreplaceable link to the early history of the Barossa as a viticultural treasure from the first generation of European settlers. They are Torbreck’s oldest collection of vines from any single plot.

The cooler evening breezes that flow through the southern end of the Barossa produce an elegant style of Shiraz that is regarded for its distinctive aromatic, lifted floral notes and red fruit flavours, across a medium weight line intertwined with subtle rounded tannins.

The core of red berry fruit and texture derived from these very old and gnarly vines produce an unmistakable degree of finesse and complexity that was calling out to bottled as a single site expression, and a reflection of place.  Torbreck chief winemaker Ian Hongell and viticulturist Nigel Blieschke, who have driven this project since 2014, were firm in their belief that this vineyard had a rightful place in Torbreck’s pursuit of single-site wines of significance and pedigree. 

The Forebear, a premium single-vineyard wine crafted from one of the oldest Shiraz vineyards in the world, pays homage to the pioneering families of the Barossa. In 1849 Samuel Springbett, established ‘Hillside’ on the outskirts of Lyndoch in the southern end of the Barossa Valley.  A small shiraz vineyard was established c.1850, starting a legacy of grape growing and winemaking across multiple generations and families.

In 2002 Torbreck purchased the Hillside Vineyard estate, remarkably still predominately in its original form, including a number of significant vineyards and the heritage-listed winery and cellars, and immediately set out on rejuvenating the ancient vineyards, implementing sustainable farming practices and restoring the estate's waterways and scrubland back to their natural state. The vines are from an ancient Heritage clone originally brought from Europe as cuttings and planted before the discovery of Phylloxera. These ancestor vines are embedded in soils of sand over deep loam and red clay.

The Forebear is named in honour of those who came before, our ancestors, whose custodianship, vision and values protected and preserved these heritage vines.

This single vineyard Shiraz is a testament to ancient soils and the sustainable viticultural practices of generations of Barossa farmers.