In
Veritas Winery, the crushing of grapes is designed to leave as many whole
berries as possible in fermentation, inside 8-ton open fermenters. The old
screw press has been used in the winery starting 1955, aiming not to press too
hard in order to leave a few litres in the cake to avoid the hardness in wine.
Rolf
Binder is the winemaker, aiming for the correct use of oak, with new oak used
sparingly, and older re-shaven oak is used to import less aggression and more
fine oak characters to the wine. The premium wines such as Hanisch and Heysen
spend 22 months in oak.
After
barrel selection and blending, the wine receives a light fining of egg white
and a very gentle filtering. The winery was established in 1955 by Rolf Binder’s
parents Rolf and Fransiska Binder, post-war immigrant from Europe. Rolf Sr.
came to Australia without anything and started work as a court interpreter, when
he met Chris Vohrer and Wilhelm Abel, who established the original winery in
the Barossa Valley.
After
working a decade in the winery, Rolf purchased the property and renamed it
Veritas Winery. Initial production was of fortified wines, with a few reds,
also doing ‘house deliveries’ which helped to spread the reputation. In the mid-1960s
Rolf Sr. purchased some land that was partially planted with Shiraz and Mataro.
By 1972
the land was all planted with vines and he christened the Heysen and Hanisch
vineyards. In early 1980s his daughter and son joined the business, with Rolf
Jr. began working in the winery from 1982, and Christa went offsite and came
back after 10 years to bring in skills for white winemaking.
Rolf Jr.
stayed away from fortified and developed the red wine, which now compete with
the famous wine of South Australia, the Penfolds Grange. In 2005, the winery
was renamed Rolf Binder to honor Rolf Sr.
I have
recently tasted the 2006 Hanisch Shiraz and 2008 Heinrich SMG, below are my
tasting notes:
Appearance
Nose
Clean,
the nose shows pronounced intensity aromas of ripe black fruit such as
blackberry and bilberry, pungent spice of black pepper, sweet spice of cloves,
oak notes of toast and smoke, MLF notes of butter, animal notes of leather. The
wine is still youthful.
Palate
Dry with
medium acidity, the wine has medium tannin, smooth and has a velvety texture.
Medium (+) in alcohol, it has full body and medium (+) intensity flavors of
black fruit such as blackberry and bilberry, oak notes of toast and vanilla,
pungent spice of black pepper. The wine has a medium (+) finish.
Conclusion
Very
good quality Australia Shiraz with the typical spicy notes and ripe black fruit
characters, the wine has a very intense nose showing good complexity on aromas,
and the palate is also impressive with fairly strong flavors. The alcohol level
is high as one would expect from such wine, with a fairly long finish. The wine
is still quite youthful but ready to drink now, but can benefit from further
ageing of another 4-6 years.
Appearance
Nose
Clean,
with medium (+) intensity aromas of black fruit such as black cherries and dark
plum, red fruit of redcurrant and candy, pungent spice of black pepper, oak
notes of vanilla, sweet spice of cloves, maturity notes of savory. The wine is
developing.
Palate
Dry with
medium acidity, the wine has medium tannin, ripe and silky in texture. Medium
(+) in alcohol, it has medium (+) body with medium (+) intensity flavors of
black fruit such as black cherries and dark plum, pungent spice of black
pepper, oak notes of vanilla, sweet spice of cloves. The wine has a medium
finish.
Conclusion
Good
quality Australian GSM with an intense nose showing good complexity of ripe
fruit and spicy characters, clearly showing the higher proportion of 
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