Ripe fruit on the nose, with dark summer berries, damp earth, leather and oak spice. On the palate ripe, black fruit, with chocolaty tones lead to long chewy tannins on the concentrated finish.

Damien Tscharke established the Tscharke brand in 2004. A sixth generation viticulturist, he grew up in the Barossa Valley among the vineyards in Seppeltsfield and Marananga. The family’s first winemaker, his father and grandfather grew grapes as part of a mixed farming enterprise, selling their grapes to local winemakers. Damien believes the terroir of Barossa Valley offers the ideal location for new varieties to be introduced. Following extensive research Tempranillo, Graciano, Montepulciano, Zinfandel and Savagnin were planted between 1999 and 2002. His winemaking methods are traditional, with minimal handling, open-top fermentation, basket pressing, and aging in French oak with no fining or filtration. The Marananga vineyards are planted on gentle slopes of gravelly sand over red brown soil, the Seppeltsfield vineyards to red brown soil. The philosophy behind the Tscharke range is to produce wines which are stylistically distinctive, offering ripe but balanced fruit with excellent varietal definition.

Wine maker notes

The best Grenache I have made. Perfume of lavender, violets, white pepper and subtle red current over tones. The wine tastes ”Rhone like” with pure elegance and structure paramount, a true reflection of what I believe to be on the best vintages I have seen.

Technical notes

The grapes are harvested from two estate vineyards planted on deep friable, red brown soil. One is planted in Seppeltsfield with 120 year old Garnacha and the other in Marananga with a 150 year old clone. Whole clusters (30%) are placed into five ton open-top fermentors, punched down and after 14 days basket pressed to 300 liter French oak hogs heads. The wine matured for 10 months in oak (50%) and stainless steel (50%).