By Samuel Squire

The $5 million Barossa Cellar project has had a vineyard planted with top end Shiraz vines donated from some of the region’s most iconic vineyards.

The Barossa Cellar vineyard was established to help raise money to fund the $5m community project, which has now been completed.

The 1ha vineyard has become the home to around 2000 vine cuttings from some of the Barossa’s most prestigious vineyards, including Langmeil Winery’s The Freedom Vineyard.

The new vineyard is planted with Shiraz vines which collectively represent 175 years of Barossa wine production from 35 source vineyards including: Henschke, Penfolds and Kalleske Wines.

Louisa Rose, chair of The Barossa Cellar, said that planting vine cuttings with so much history and heritage is a “hugely significant” achievement for the region.

She added that the vines will be used to produce the grapes for one definitive and ultra-exclusive Barossa Shiraz.

Each of the 35 source vineyards has a dedicated row in The Barossa Cellar vineyard and Louisa said donors had really embraced this concept and many people had sent details explaining their connection to a particular source vineyard.

“Eventually, every vine in The Barossa Cellar vineyard will have a story behind it and when you gather them all together it is an incredibly powerful insight into the Barossa wine community,” she said.

“We have no doubt these vines will produce exceptional wines and we can’t wait to pick the first grapes in 2023.”

For $1,000, vine donors are allocated an individual vine and will also have the first chance to purchase the limited release wine produced from the vineyard.

Louisa concluded the vineyard “tells us a lot about the history of grapegrowing in the Barossa and because the vine acknowledgements are in perpetuity, our vine donors will now be part of the Barossa’s future”.

The Barossa Cellar’s hidden gem is the underground, tunnel-like and climate-controlled wine vault, which can store and display over 3,000 bottles of wine on racks and in special displays. Further storage capacity in the state-of-the-art facility lies behind the vault, also underground, with a large 42m long, 6m wide cellar which can store 7,000 dozen bottles of wine – or 84,000 bottles. Among the iconic wines on display in the tunnel vault is Seppeltsfield’s collection of its Para Tawny, including the first vintage from 1878.

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