To understand Barossa wines and its most famous variety Shiraz you need to appreciate the uniqueness of the location.
Pretty well all other vineyard regions across the globe are similar to several other locations and all things being equal the wines will taste the same. They vary of course as the varieties planted will differ, there must always be at least a shift in the degree of the climate influence, while each region will produce wines to local customs.
The Barossa Valley sits in the Adelaidean Mount Lofty range and because of a combination of many unusual geographical features the grapes produce a remarkable weight of flavour which shows on the mid palate of Shiraz and Cabernet.
Apart from Penfolds which has achieved global luxury status Barossa wines are under-valued. Indeed to my astonishment are considered by many critics to be too much of a good thing.
This is what the Langdorf tastes like – true Barossa. The first Langdorf vintage was the 2008.