Torbreck Runrig

Wine information: Torbreck Vintners was founded in 1994 by David Powell and is located at Marananga on the western ridge of the Barossa Valley. It is named after a forest situated just south of Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland. The roots go back to 1992 when Dave, who was then working at Rockford, began to discover and clean up a few sections of dry-grown old vines, so that he could buy the fruit for his own wine. he first wine made under the Torbreck label was during the 1995 vintage, with the finished wines released in 1997. The wines are made in a style emulating those of the Rhone Valley and are made from various grapes including red grapes Shiraz, Grenache and Mataro as well as white grapes Viognier, Roussanne and Marsanne. The overwhelming majority of his vines are dry-grown, nearly all are 80 - 125 years old and are tended and harvested by hand. The wines have an extraordinary combination of power, intensity, complexity and great finesse. Torbreck Runrig 2004 is Shiraz (97%) from very old, dry-grown vines from a number of sites in the Barossa Valley and estate-grown Viognier (3%). The Shiraz is hand-picked and fermented in open-top vats, gently basket-pressed and then matured in French oak barrels, of which about 60% are new. The Viognier, also hand-picked, is fermented separately in oak barrels and aged there for six months. The white wine is blended with the red immediately prior to bottling. RunRig is Torbreck's flagship wine. Its name was inspired by the band of the same name, who Dave Powell first heard while living in north-east Scotland. The Highland clans used the 'runrig' system to distribute cultivable land, the emphasis being not on one harm but on the communal whole.

Tasting Notes: Torbreck RunRig 2004 although wonderfully aromatic like its predecessors, is a wine that exhibits so much power and latent richness that it could easily be mistaken for the hugely concentrated wines sourced from the sun drenched hill of Hermitage (the historic home of Syrah and some of the worlds most powerful and longest living wines). Possessing a dense, saturated, almost ink like hue, the aromas of black raspberries, crème de cassis, smoke, graphite and melted tar soar from the glass. Full bodied with great intensity, amazing freshness and extraordinary concentration, the multi-layered palate displays the fruit purity that only the most fastidious farming can achieve. Hints of homemade marmalade, scorched earth and slow roasted meats later emerge with time in the glass. Although extremely intense, the wines power is cloaked within its balance and concentration, surging forth as an expansive sensation- the way only the greatest wines can. The 2004 RunRig will greatly reward those with patience.

Reviews: "The flagship 2004 Run Rig is 96.5% Shiraz and 3.5% Viognier with the Shiraz component aged for 30 months in a mixture of new and used French oak. Yields were a minuscule 14 hl/ha (about 1 ton per acre). Saturated opaque purple/black, it has a remarkably kinky, exotic perfume of fresh asphalt, pencil lead, smoke, pepper, game, blueberry and black raspberry. Full-bodied and voluptuous in the mouth, the wine is dense and packed, with amazing purity, sweet tannins, and a complex collection of sensory stimuli. The wine demands 10 years of cellaring and will provide hedonistic delights through 2035+. Torbreck, under the leadership of owner/winemaker David Powell, remains a Barossa Valley benchmark as well as one of the world’s greatest wine estates. The top cuvees are limited production and expensive but there are also some outstanding values in the portfolio. With regard to the current vintages for the Barossa red wines, David Powell states “2004 is more savory while 2005 has more purity and definition. 2004 is more classic, 2005 will take longer to come around.” 99 Points, Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate.

 
     

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