BUZZ
SEPTEMBER 2025
MAKE A WISH FOR A GREAT SHIRAZ...
The 1894 planted Command vineyard is just so remarkable and special. Year after year after year, these vines excel in producing the most incredible single vineyard Shiraz which is widely heralded as one of Australia’s greatest single vineyard wines.
The Ashmead family have called Elderton home since 1980 and have cherished being the custodians of the Command vineyard for the past 45 years - originally rescuing it as an abandoned,
unloved and almost derelict site. Today, the vines are lovingly nurtured by hand and represent the most remarkable vineyard site that we own - which is high praise considering the other Elderton vineyard assets.
The winter season was very kind leading up to harvest 2022, with the best winter rains since 1996. The season had some ups and downs, but luckily Elderton was largely spared from some of the most ferocious hail in living memory, which hit
in late October and devastated a huge amount of Barossa vineyards.
Our winemaking team think of this vintage as being delightfully elegant and beautifully structured, with depth and length of flavour. In fact, it is the Elderton team’s belief that vintage 2021 followed by 2022 is the best one-two punch in terms of great consecutive vintages that we have likely ever seen.
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MAKE A WISH FOR A GREAT SHIRAZ...
This is a Command that is not to be missed.
Don’t take our word for it though, as the early press from esteemed Australian wine writers has been glowing:
“I’ve been looking forward to this wine, ever since I tasted the previous vintage – both are superb Barossa years... A cracker. Twenty to twenty-five years of pleasure ahead. In the pantheon of great Barossa Shiraz, this is sensational value.” 97 points, Ken Gargett, WinePilot
“Supple and evolved... lovely midpalate richness... Very classical.”
97 points, Andrew Caillard MW
“The 2022 Shiraz Command is exceptional...The powerful fruit still remains in its shell and is encased with structural, balanced tannins that will reward time in the cellar.” 95 points, Angus Hughson, Vinous
“The balance here is impeccable. Indeed so too is the freshness, and the character.”
95 points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
WHEN TO ENJOY THIS WINE?
With recent changes to both viticulture and winemaking, it is the Ashmead family’s belief that the results of a meticulous and unwavering commitment to best practice in the vineyard and winery, allows us to make one of the best Shiraz in not only the Barossa, but from anywhere on the planet.
“a meticulous and unwavering commitment to best practice allows us to make one of the best Shiraz anywhere on the planet.”
This wine is now more pure, bright and utterly delicious - and as faithful readers of The Buzz would know, you can cellar these wines with great confidence into the long term. However we also believe that this vintage can be enjoyed with delicious results right from release.
AVAILABLE NOW
Available online or in Cellar Door. Throughout September, visit Cellar Door to taste Command and Ashmead (not generally on tasting.)
The 2022 Command Shiraz is also available in magnum (1.5L) and 6L bottles. Contact Cellar Door for more details.
We hope you don’t miss out on this truly remarkable and delicious wine.
… Your wish is our 2022 Command.
“In the pantheon of great Barossa Shiraz, this is sensational value.” - Ken Gargett
IN CELEBRATION OF 2023 CABERNET SAUVIGNON
Whilst celebrated globally as one of the truly great noble grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon is unfortunately having a bit of a tough time of it in Australia at the moment.
A generation ago, here in Australia the argument for superiority was a headto-head between Shiraz and Cabernet; today the battle sits squarely between Shiraz and Pinot Noir (and as friends of Elderton know - friends don’t let friends drink Pinot!!).
“Year in, year out, this is always one of the Barossa’s most exciting Cabernets and this latest release is no different. Stellar stuff. 95 Points.” Ken Gargett, Wine Pilot
Whilst internationally it is the most planted of all varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon is in third place in Australia, and falling. This certainly has been the case here in the Barossa, with many growers favouring varieties that are more in demand and easier to grow.
At Elderton, the Ashmead family love Cabernet, and it is dear to the
whole team due to the success and deliciousness of the Cabernet based wines that we make. Winning the Jimmy Watson for our estate Cabernet from the 1992 vintage, has ensured that generations of Elderton fans have been able to enjoy our ripe and delicious estate grown Cabernets and Cabernet blends.
“Year in, year out, this is always one of the Barossa’s most exciting Cabernets and this latest release is no different.”
“Bloody Good. 96 Points.” Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal
It is also why we were confident in saving a struggling old vine Cabernet block on the Elderton Nuriootpa Estate that was planted in 1944, knowing that people would trust us to make not only one of the best Cabernets in the Barossa – but one of the best Australia-wide.
2023 is another great release of this wine, and whilst the vintage had some challenges through a greater than average wet season, the 2023 Ashmead still excelled. Careful attention to picking the best bunches and only the best barrels, we know from similar tricky vintages like 2000 and 2007 that this wine will reward those that have the patience to wait for prime drinking in 8+ years from now.
AVAILABLE NOW
Made in very small quantities, we hope you do not miss out on this year’s celebration of Cabernet.
Available online or in Cellar Door. Throughout September, visit Cellar Door to taste Command and Ashmead (not generally on tasting.)
OUR WINES
An outline of our current release wines, now available in Cellar Door and online.
Please contact our Cellar Door team if you have any questions on these wines - phone 08 8568 7878.
ELITE SINGLE VINEYARDS
2022 COMMAND SHIRAZ *NEW VINTAGE*
Command is truly an expression of place, and we are proud to be the current custodians of a rare piece of Barossa Valley viticultural heritage. Single vineyard, planted 1894.
A cracker. Twenty to twenty-five years of pleasure ahead. In the pantheon of great Barossa Shiraz, this is sensational value.
97 points, Ken Gargett, winepilot.com
Supple and evolved...Very classical.
97 points, Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal
The 2022 Shiraz Command is exceptional.
95 points, Angus Hughson, Vinous
The balance here is impeccable. Indeed so too is the freshness, and the character.
95 points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
2023 ASHMEAD CABERNET SAUVIGNON *NEW VINTAGE*
In 1997 the family sat down to discuss the viability of a 1944 Cabernet block - its saving grace was simply the pure brilliance of the fruit. It was, and is, always the standout Cabernet block on our Nuriootpa property.
Bloody good.
96 points, Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal
Year in, year out, this is always one of the Barossa’s most exciting Cabernets and this latest release is no different. Stellar stuff.
95 points, Ken Gargett, winepilot.com
2023 HELBIG 1915 SHIRAZ
Only 699 bottles produced, from the 1915 Shiraz block at our Greenock vineyard. Magnums also available.
A delicious whack of plums and spiced red berries. Notes of dark chocolate on the back palate, with silken long tannins to underpin the power of fruit on the finish.
Jules and Brock, winemaker notes
EXCEPTIONAL SITES
2022 ODE TO LORRAINE (CABERNET, SHIRAZ, MERLOT)
Named in honour of Lorraine Ashmead, co-founder of Elderton, the winemaking team at Elderton believe this is truly the hidden gem of our premium reds and one we know cellars brilliantly.
The palate has a juicy feel with delicious, spicy fruits supported by fine tannins and a combination of new and seasoned French oak. A first rate wine.
96 points, Ray Jordan, winepilot.com
This has impressive density of fruit and mouth-filling tannins. Its structure in particular marks this as something special for the cellar.
94 points, Angus Hughson, Vinous
2023 NEIL ASHMEAD GRAND TOURER SHIRAZ
A tribute to an amazing individual who was always willing to push the boundaries of expectations. Neil drove tirelessly from city to city with a car loaded with wine, doing tastings and dinners with whoever would listen, and generally spruiking the Barossa. It was his love of fast cars that made this pursuit a little easier, thus the unusual choice for the name of this Shiraz.
Cheeky and affable, this is Shiraz with an engaging red-fruited smile but also some boisterous black-fruited muscle.
Top 40 scoring wines (2023 Barossa Shiraz), David Sly, Decanter
Very much in the style of a Barossa classic. Everything is in place to ensure that further glories are revealed in the coming years.
95 points, Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal
2024 WELLINGTON GRENACHE
This wine is named after our maternal Grandfather, who helped Lorraine and Neil to start Elderton Wines.1332 bottles produced.
I like this wine a lot. It is lovely. It comes from a vineyard that was planted in 1969...This is magic. The tannins here are exceptional.
94 points, Erin Larkin, Parker’s Wine Advocate
ESTATE FAMILY VINEYARDS
2022 BAROSSA SHIRAZ
This is surely already a contender for one of the best value wines of the year... Love this and it is such great value for a wine which is so chock full of flavour. Ten to fifteen years without a hiccup.
94 points, Ken Gargett, winepilot.com
...plush, opulent and proud...It finishes tight, aided by a cluster of fine-grained tannins, which suggests a long, fruitful life in the cellar.
94 points, David Sly, Decanter
It presents terrific value with a lot of Barossa packed into the bottle.
93 points, Dave Brookes, Halliday Wine Companion
It feels and tastes like Barossa, without the overt weight and density of other estates. The earthy tannins speak of the Barossa. I love the finish.
91 points, Erin Larkin, Parker’s Wine Advocate
2022 BAROSSA CABERNET SAUVIGNON
This is splendidly fruited and varietally expressive, showing cassis, violet, thyme, game and assorted nut aromas on the nose. The palate delivers terrific weight and fleshy texture, wonderfully framed by finely infused tannins, finishing sturdy and robust.
94 points, Sam Kim, Wine Orbit
The brightness and juicy energy of this Barossa vintage has been beautifully captured in this pure and expressive cabernet. Blackcurrant and swirling chocolate and juicy plum to open on the nose. Then the palate delivers its vibrant fruit load with a refreshing purity and energy. It’s succulent and juicy but with structure and poise. 92 points, RayJordan
A seamless structure with intensity maintained for the full length of the wine, through to the very fine tannins. This is a wine which will easily provide pleasure over the next ten to twelve years and improve further over that time.
92 points, Ken Gargett, winepilot.com
2023 BAROSSA MERLOT
Plummy and bright as merlot should be...Lovely fleshy fruit on the palate, fine billowing tannins and just a touch of sour cherry bite at the back-end. Really attractive drinking.
92 points, Dave Brookes, Halliday Wine Companion
2024 BAROSSA GSM
A covert package arrived with an advanced sample of the terrific and embarrassingly inexpensive 2024 Elderton GSM, which looked pristine. This wine will pop up, without fail, in next year’s Report, but if you see it in the meantime, slip it into your cart! Matthew Jukes
2024 EDEN VALLEY RIESLING
an endearing clover blossom and dried honey tone ... just liminal, somewhere off in the olfactory peripheral vision. And it finishes super stony and composed with energy to burn and I like that, too. Nice one.
93 points + special value rating, Dave Brookes, Wine Companion ...finely crafted wine of the highest standard. 95 points, The Vintage Journal SA Wine Guide
2024 EDEN VALLEY CHARDONNAY
As a single site wine, our Eden Valley Chardonnay will always show typicity of the vineyard, whilst varying with what each season brings. We are on a constant learning journey adapting to the seasons.
2024 EDEN VALLEY FIELD BLEND
As typically occurs with older vineyard plantings, there are often several other ‘rogue’ varieties amongst the vines. We have discovered Semillon, Crouchen, White Frontignac and Viognier. So we picked these separately and have had a creative play, bringing this tiny limited release of just 1212 bottles.
2024 DUKE OF WELLINGTON OLD VINE SHIRAZ VP *NEW VINTAGE*
Duke of Wellington was the name of our tawny port made through the 1980s and we have revived the name for this wine. It is a tribute to Lorraine’s late father (named Wellington, nicknamed Duke) who originally found and bought the Nuriootpa property in the late 1970s.
WINERY AND VINEYARD UPDATE
VINTAGE 2025 WRAP FROM JULES
Vintage 2025 feels like a long time ago! It was the earliest to both start and finish on rec-ord.
The speedy season was driven by warm, dry conditions and low yields following late-season frosts in spring 2024. With sugars climbing rapidly during ripening, we had to jump in and start harvest early as there was no relief in sight.
In fact, we had to wait until June for rain! Our Chardonnay and Riesling, albeit with small yields came more than a week earlier than 2024. The Riesling is sitting in tank on lees and the Chardonnay in barrel. The wines in a word are smart, not overly aromatic but with a great focus.
As for our reds, we expected a solid tannin structure thanks to the dry vintage resulting small berries, however what has truly surprised us is the aromatic profile. The fruit characteristics are fresh, vibrant, and powerfully expressive.
Now, as we blend our 2025 GSM, it’s the perfect moment to finally reflect on the season. The blend is looking very promising and will now rest in tulips to mature and come together.
Mataro has emerged as a real standout this year, rich in spice and depth. Being a later-ripening and hardy variety, it has thrived in the dry conditions. Our old vine Greenock Grenache, aka
Wellington, is delicious, juicy and vibrant with snappy tannins and a lovely savoury line on the palate.
Our Shiraz blocks have each shown distinct personalities. On the whole, Greenock Shiraz delivers the more obvious forward fruit characters with a firm tannin hit, while our Nuriootpa Shiraz is seamless with deeper tannins, and more complexity.
The old vines in Nuriootpa carried only a light crop this year, and the resulting wines show great vitality, with the vines remaining healthy to full berry ripeness despite the dry conditions.
Mengler Hill, the newest addition to our vineyard family, continues to impress. From Riesling with pinpoint focus and drive, to Shiraz that naturally balances fruit, acid, and tannin. Our Mengler Grenache, named Winifred, is showing great promise. Though still a little shy, its tannin structure is already commanding attention and will be a great second release of this wine.
Overall, the 2025 wines are developing beautifully. They’ll need time to settle and come together, but with plenty of highlights, we’re genuinely excited about what lies ahead.
IN THE VINEYARD WITH CONRAD
Off the back of a dry year, with meagre rain forecast for early winter, we came into planning for next year expecting more of the same. The storms and rain
we have had recently have somewhat tempered that outlook and we can see reasonable long-term forecasts through spring.
Regardless of weather, we always strive to keep back enough irrigation water to fill the soil profile of our old premium vines.
With winter rainfall being much less reliable nowadays, irrigating in winter allows the vines to start the season with good water availability - the old vines are exceptional at rationing this out across the growing season, so give us a very efficient use of our most precious resource.
Pruning is now well underway with Mengler Hill and Greenock just finished. We are asking much less of the vines by pruning to fewer buds than typical. Taking a little less than they can achieve each year allows vine reserves build up which helps even out cooler or drier years.
The calm of winter is nearly over now and the beautiful sunny days of late winter inevitably foretell the coming of budburst and the excitement of another season.
As we head into spring, our work shifts from long term projects into prepping the vineyards for budburst, so the next few weeks we focus on managing mid-row and undervine growth to minimize water loss and competition.
Resident kanagroos in the Command Shiraz block
COM MANDERS HON OUR ROLL FAREWELL TO KARLI AND JESS
Making great wine is what we do, but sharing our wine with people who appreciate what we do and continue to contribute to our success is truly remarkable.
In 2012, we decided that it would be great to acknowledge our most loyal customers, with the introduction of the Elderton Commanders.
Commanders receive great rewards including:
• First access to new vintage Command Shiraz and Ashmead Cabernet Sauvignon
• Exclusive access to museum releases
• Priority invitation to special events at the winery or your capital city of residence, including Commander special pricing for event tickets
• 20% discount on current release Estate and Exceptional Sites wine ranges via Commander login on the website
• One complimentary night in the Elderton Guest House, in Nuriootpa
We take this opportunity to acknowledge this year’s 10 year Commanders:
John & Alisa Robertson
Richard Newton
Ian Preston Merv & Shona Haines
Kevin & Leanne Jolly Mac & Ann Stirling
Sandra & Paul Jenkins
Barry & Kath Miller
Philip Aitken
Andrew Knott
Fiona & Terry Stone
Thank you for your continued support of our family business!
As a small family winery we are acutely aware that we are only as good as our staff – and in this regard we have always been blessed to find people who care about Elderton as much as the family does. We also know that there are only so many roles to fill in a small family operation, and that career advancements for our small team have to sometimes be achieved elsewhere. It is thus very sad news for us to see two remarkable people leave our fold.
Jess Ruciack was with us for over 15 years, and has been a powerhouse in marketing, communications and all things digital. In this time we have seen her family grow and we wish her the very best in her future endeavours.
Karli Currie was with the team for 11 years. With a wonderful attitude and a beaming smile, Karli was a natural all rounder who understood and filled many roles at Elderton and Small Victories over her tenure but was truly at her best marching around Elderton wine dinners or the Good Food & Wine Show ensuring everyone’s cellars were filled with Elderton.
Both Karli and Jess have given their all and will be very much missed at Elderton, but will be always welcome back for a glass of wine or five, and many laughs when reminiscing about the many good times we shared.
Allister and Cameron at Cellar Door
OUT AND ABOUT WITH ELDERTON
Send your snaps of Elderton out and about to jack@eldertonwines.com.au
UPCOMING EVENTS
1. Russ enjoyed a bottle of 2012 Command recently while in Monterey, USA;
2. Al hosted a progressive dinner throughout the WACA in late August, a very cool way to tour the ground!;
3. The winemaking and vineyard teams recently dug a soil pit at our Mengler Hill vineyard to learn more about the soil profile, with Baloo site supervising;
4. Al and Bec had a fabulous time touring through some French wine regions in July, here Al is pictured in Burgundy;
5. Cam had the great pleasure of going to the Meals on Wheels SA headquarters to provide our Small Victories Charity Partner donation to CEO Sharyn Broer; 6. Cam ready to cheer loudly at the recent British & Irish Lions tour match at Adelaide Oval.
Please visit our website for more details on each of these upcoming events:
Spring Tastes @ Cellar Door throughout September
Brisbane dinner @ Club Felix - 23 October 2025
Cameron, Jodhi and Karli for dinner. Book on our website.
Brisbane Good Food & Wine Show - 24-26 October 2025 Karli and Jodhi will be showcasing Elderton and Small Victories wines at our stall in the Barossa section.
15CLUB lunch - save the date - 14 March 2026
European River Cruise with Cam and Jules - October 2026
As part of a new partnership with Cruising Wine Tours, join Cameron and Jules on an exciting “Rhine and Rhone Revealed Wine Lovers” voyage!