Torbreck's The Laird made from $16,000 a tonne grapes
After the fuss surrounding the 2008 Penfolds Grange (tasting) launch, the July 1 release of Torbreck’s 2008 The Laird Shiraz (tasting), at an even higher recommended retail price of $900, probably won’t cause a ripple.
Torbreck doesn’t go in for the showbiz launches that Penfolds and others engage in. Even so, a certain overseas wine critic has scored both wines 100/100, which in my view is ridiculous, and devalues the whole idea of rating wine.
Scoring wine has become an arms-race, a kind of critics’ bidding war. Some even boast about their scores on Twitter. It’s one thing to score wines, quite another to behave like a spruiker.
That said, the 2008 The Laird is clearly an outstanding wine, and the best Laird so far (there have only been three, mind you!). With just 350 dozen produced, it’s only a fraction of Grange’s make.
The grapes came from Malcolm Seppelt’s vineyard at Marananga, which has also produced exceptional fruit for Rolf Binder’s The Malcolm, Grange and Chris Ringland, to idly drop a few names.
I innocently asked what Torbreck boss Dave Powell pays Mr Seppelt for these grapes, not expecting to be let into the secret, and the answer was $16,000 a tonne.
That’s serious money. Half that - $8,000 - would be considered a super-premium shiraz price for any other winery’s $100 Barossa flagship.
If you like super-concentrated mocha, rum-and-raisin chocolate style shiraz, and you have very deep pockets, this is your bag. But the best value of the current Torbreck crop, for mine, is The Steading Blanc 2012: a delicious, character-filled $39 marsanne, viognier, roussanne blend (tasting note).
And the 2011 Struie Shiraz ($49; tasting note), the Barossa and Eden Valley blend, which is more peppery and elegant than usual from the wet 2011 vintage, but a stylish cool-year iteration of Barossa shiraz that I really enjoy.