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As you can imagine, allocations are tiny.
Only 30 bottles of each wine are available.
Established in 1984, Rockford is now in its 38th vintage and prides itself on maintaining the best of the traditional Australian wine trade. Founded by Robert O’Callaghan, the winery is a family-owned Barossa institution using traditional Barossa grape varieties, with some vines dating back to the 1880s. Much of the winery equipment also dates back well over 100 years. This unique approach to traditional winemaking, results in a range of wines which represent the pinnacle of quality that the Barossa has to offer.
James Halliday
“Rockford can only be described as an icon, no matter how overused that word may be. It has a devoted band of customers who buy most of the wine through the cellar door or mail order (Robert O’Callaghan’s entrancing annual newsletter is like no other). Some wine is sold through restaurants and there are 2 retailers in Sydney and one each in Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Whether they will have the Basket Press Shiraz available is another matter; it is as scarce as Henschke Hill of Grace (but less expensive).”
Winemaker - Robert O’Callaghan
"My grandparents and also my parents on both sides were grape growers, so my childhood was spent in their vineyards. My parents moved to North Eastern Victoria where my father managed a vineyard for Australia’s then largest family winemakers, Seppelts. In 1965, I followed a natural path and started as a trainee winemaker at Seppelt’s Rutherglen winery. It was a wonderful apprenticeship in the old, ordered, slow and gentle Australian wine trade. The wines I drank, the previous generation winemakers I associated with, and everything I absorbed in that period had a major influence on the way Rockford is today. Although I’ve spent all my life in vineyards and wineries, the pleasure I derive from walking through rows of vines or casks filled with wine has not diminished. Wine is crafted, not created. The skill is to capture and enhance the fleeting flavours that grapes give from their variety and extract from the earth, then bottle these as a living record of the vintage they represent. Rockford wines are made from established Barossa varieties, which form an important part of our winemaking heritage, in a style that best reflects the vineyards, the winemaker’s attitude and the climate in which we live. I have always lived in and feel most comfortable with the warm Mediterranean climate of the Barossa where grapes ripen easily. My preference is to make the wine by hand with traditional methods, attitudes and equipment to produce elegant but rich, earthy, soft, generous wines that will age."
One of Australia’s most collected wines
This wine is made from specially selected small parcels of established Barossa Shiraz from some of the Barossa’s finest grape growing families. The vineyards are situated in different sub-regions throughout the Barossa, which adds to the complexity and depth of the final blend. The wine is hand-made using equipment from the turn of the last century, then matured in seasoned American and French oak casks for two years. All this contributes to our objective to make the very highest quality traditional, soft, deeply-coloured, earthy Australian red wine which will bottle age.
Josh Raynolds, Vinous “Inky, violet color. Expressive aromas of ripe red and blue fruits, violet, incense and Indian spices, along with building minerality. Stains the palate with vibrant black raspberry, blueberry, bitter cherry and floral pastille flavors that slowly deepen and become sweeter with aeration. Shows superb power but comes off elegant, showing no rough edges on a strikingly long, gently tannic finish that leaves behind sappy blue fruit and spicecake notes.”
2018 Rifle Range Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon has been planted in the Barossa since at least 1888. The warm climate here means Barossa Cabernet wines are rich and full-flavoured. The fruit for our Cabernet Sauvignon comes predominantly from vineyards along Rifle Range Road, just behind their winery. The ‘Biscay’ soil of the Rifle Range vineyards is heavy, black, cracking clay, lending the wine its rich and earthy character. It is a generous wine when young, but will really show its best if given a chance to mature in the bottle a little longer.
Gary Walsh, The Wine Front “Rifle to my head, I’d say this is arguably the best red in the Rockford range. Beautiful wine here. Plum, blackberry, a little liquorice, violet, a tiny bit of roast red capsicum. It’s medium-bodied, delivers intense flavour with a dried rose thing happening, tight tannin, again just a little of that roast sweet vegetable adding complexity, freshness and excellent length. A wonderful expression of Barossa red. Thoroughly charming.”
2018 Rod and Spur Shiraz-Cabernet
Blending of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon ensures the great Australian red wine style of the 1950’s and 60’s is not lost. Early Australian winemakers began to forge their own paths by blending varieties that had not traditionally been found together. The splicing of two great things doesn’t always produce something better. But, in some cases, the alchemy of winemaking weaves its magic to create a wine more interesting and complex than the separate components. We’ve named this wine in acknowledgement of our grape growers who spend the cold Barossa winters hand pruning in the traditional rod and spur method.
Gary Walsh, The Wine Front “Two thirds shiraz, one third cabernet. Though when you drink the wine you’d be ok thinking it was the other way around. A potent cabernet year, here, it seems. Anyways, the Aussie classic rolls on.
It’s a delight, understated in a way though texture is loose-knit and supple while the perfume reeks of blue fruits, mint, gum leaf and salt bush. The palate does wonders in texture, gently staining the tongue, soft in the finish and yet a sense of ghostly train tracks of tannin makes things matter in structure and length. A deep sigh of red wine with flavour writ large, beautiful velvety feel and this great sense of freshness and lift too. Ripper drinking.
2018 Moppa Springs Grenache-Mataro-Shiraz
This wine highlights the suitability of Grenache, Mataro and Shiraz to some of the driest regions in the Barossa. The fruit is forked into our 1880’s wooden Bagshaw de-stemmer before fermenting in open slate tanks. Our 1890’s Robinson Basket Press slowly squeezes the remaining juice from the grapes, before the individual components are left to mature in seasoned oak casks. When the final blend comes together, layers of soft, savoury, spicy flavours are emerging and will continue to develop with a handful more years in bottle.
Gary Walsh, The Wine Front “Grenache, Shiraz, Mataro, and arguably pretty good value if you want to experience the typical Rockford style. Kind of walnutty and old school in feel, but there’s some perfume in the mix too. Red and black fruit, savoury tobacco and dark chocolate flavours, medium-bodied, fine grained tannin, tastes dark, but keeps itself pretty fresh. Finish is good too. Like this.
Zalto available to pre-order now –
Orders will be despatched early March
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