2022 Mountadam High Eden Walter Shiraz, Eden Valley

This wine opens with attractive, lifted aromas of black fruit spiced with black pepper and sage, with notes of biltong, licorice, cocoa, oolong and violets emerging over time. The palate is medium- to full-bodied, with the juicy and lightly chewy fruit showing savoury and flinty edges and fine, powdery tannins.

This would sit well with rich umami and gentle spicing. Try with tea-smoked duck breasts with a plum and star anise reduction, or cook a comfort-in-a-pot venison goulash cooked with sweet paprika, caraway seed and root vegetables.

More about this wine

Mountadam’s High Eden wines are parcel selections of estate grown fruit. Formerly known as Mountadam’s Patriarch Shiraz, the Walter is a tribute to proprietor Jenni Brown’s father.

The 2022 season was cool and long, allowing for near-perfect conditions for grapes to develop full flavours while retaining good levels of acidity. The fruit for this wine was sourced from the estate’s oldest vines in blocks 12 and 40, both with easterly aspects and low-yielding shallow, rocky soils. The fruit was fermented in five-tonne open fermenters and matured in a combination of new to third fill French oak barriques and puncheons, as well as in one new, large oak cask from Fouderie François.

About Mountadam

Mountadam Vineyards is a family winery in the High Eden sub-region of Eden Valley. This is the highest point in the Barossa, rising to 600 metres altitude across hilly terrain of complex geology. Established in 1972, current owners David and Jenni Brown preside over a large property covering ten square kilometres, with their two vineyards totalling 67 hectares.