2022 Chaffey Bros La Resistance! GSM, Barossa Valley

Sweetly ripe and inviting with dark plum, cherry, thyme, warm spice, and rich floral aromas on the nose. It's succulent and supple in the mouth, delivering smooth texture and fine tannins, finishing supple and delectable. At its best: now to 2032

93 points Sam Kim wineorbit.co.nz

Team Chaffey Bros has been consistently releasing some pretty delicious wines of late. Wines of funk and crunch and a sense of effortless drinkability. Ditto this release, which is old-vine grenache, syrah and mourvèdre matured in seasoned French oak for nine months. Dark cherry and blood plum dredged with spice, purple floral tones, ironstone and whiffs of berry flan. Bright, just the right amount of crunch and damn fine drinkin'.

92 points Special Value Dave Brookes winecompanion.com.au

The 2022 Chaffey Bros La Résistance! GSM is a riot of Barossa flavour wrapped in a package that feels both modern and utterly rooted in tradition. It’s the Chaffey Bros’ love letter to the Rhône, but reimagined through a Barossan lens—bolder, juicier, sunnier. Made from old vine Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvèdre (or Mataro, as the locals call it), La Résistance! wears its name with cheeky pride, offering a rebellious counterpoint to overworked, over-oaked reds. Instead, this is all about fruit purity, energy, and drinkability, while still delivering the depth and generosity you’d expect from the Barossa.

Fruit for the 2022 vintage was sourced from hand-selected old vine blocks scattered across the northern and western reaches of the Barossa Valley, with Grenache as the hero. Dry-grown bush vines, some over 80 years old, lend the wine its aromatic lift and fine-grained texture, while Shiraz and Mourvèdre add flesh, spice and earthy grip. Winemaking is sensitive: wild fermentation, minimal new oak, partial whole bunch inclusion for brightness and crunch, and careful blending to let each variety shine without one overpowering the others.

In the glass, it opens with a heady perfume of raspberry coulis, spiced plum, black cherry, dried thyme and crushed violets. There’s a thread of exotic spice—clove, pink peppercorn, a little cardamom—and just enough Mataro earth and structure to anchor all the prettiness. The palate is mid-weight and silky, bursting with red and dark fruits, layered with wild herbs and a stony, mineral edge. The tannins are supple and ripe, giving it a lovely mouth-coating persistence without any heaviness.

The 2022 vintage was excellent across the Barossa, marked by a cool spring and even ripening through summer. This gave winemakers Daniel Chaffey Hartwig, Theo Engela and Huon Fechner beautifully balanced fruit—intense but not jammy, expressive but fresh. That clarity of fruit is what defines this wine.

No surprise then that La Résistance! has been racking up awards. The 2022 vintage took home Gold at the Royal Sydney Wine Show, Top Gold at the Barossa Wine Show, and was named Best GSM at the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show. It’s become something of a benchmark for the modern Barossa GSM style—authentic, drinkable and characterful.

Perfect with smoky lamb koftas, Moroccan eggplant tagine, or woodfired pizza with fennel sausage and olives. While it's delicious now, it will hold comfortably for 5 to 7 years if you can resist the temptation.