On The Grapevine

with David Ellis

Kalleske: Home on the Grange

For years the Barossa Valley's Kalleske family have been known as growers of some very special grapes of which they've been justifiably proud - after all, not everyone has their shiraz chosen to go into Penfolds Grange.

And a few years back, the fifth generation family went a step further, producing their own label from some of this intense-flavoured fruit. The result was not surprisingly a string of medals from two vintages, including gold.

Now they've released their latest wine, K from Kalleske Estate Shiraz Viognier 2003, and it's as good as, if not even better, than the previous two vintages.

The Kalleske's boutique vineyard, with its gnarled old shiraz vines, is located in the Barossa's Greenock Creek area - one that's renowned for producing intensely-flavoured, concentrated wines. Interestingly the 90 per cent shiraz component of their latest wine comes from totally organically grown vines (although the 10 per cent viognier portion is not organic.)

And if you're wondering about the label K from Kalleske Estate Shiraz Viognier, the K stands for John and Lorraine Kalleske's son Kym, a viticulturist who tends and supervises the vineyard.

The wine is made on contract at Dorrien Estate Winery; it has wonderful dark plum and chocolate shiraz as well as aromatic apricot flavours, with fine grained tannins; match with fillet steak with a red wine reduction on a bed of creamed spinach. Pay $32.99 a bottle through Cellarmaster Wines Club by phoning (freecall) 1800 500 260 or visit www.cellarmasters.com.au.

One for the cellar: Leasingham's 2002 Bastion Cabernet Shiraz from the Clare Valley. Wonderfully fresh, with varietal uplift and intense fruit characters; pay $12-14 and it'll develop in the cellar for up to 10 years.