King bestows blessing on Amon-Ra Shiraz with full marks and then some

The Glaetzer family forebears arrived in South Australia's Barossa Valley in 1888 and have since flourished to dynastic proportions.  The present patriarchs are Colin Glaetzer and his twin brother John, the latter best known for his long-term role as Wolf Blass's right-hand man cum winemaker.  Together Blass and Glaetzer took Wolf Blass business to domestic pre-eminence and international fame; Blass the marketer supreme, Glaetzer the skilled winemaker best known for speaking in machinegun tongues.

Colin Glaetzer, too, has had a 30-year career as a winemaker but also has had three sons: Sam, the eldest, a Beringer Blass winemaker; Ben, the middle one, busy building an empire of his own, with various partnerships and businesses; and Nick, the youngest, studying winemaking in Western Australia.

Colin and Ben own Glaetzer Wines, a high-quality, limited production (about 20,000 cases) business that exports 80 per cent of its make to 25 countries, with 40 per cent of total exports going to the US.  It is made at Barossa Vintners a mega business with nine partners (including Glaetzer family), where a 10,000-tonne capacity winery handles 26 grape varieties for 40 custom-make clients.  Then there is Heartland Wines, started in 2001 by a group of wine professionals who also happen to be good friends: Ben Glaetzer, Grant Tilbrook, Scott Collet, Geoff Hardy, Gino Melino, John Pargeter and Vicki Arnold (the last, one of the most experienced marketers in the game). Barossa Vintners and Heartland are a story for another day.

The tasting notes that follow for all the Glaetzer wines are for the outstanding 2004 vintage, and were made for tank samples immediately before bottling.  The points are thus indicative only and will be finalised on the basis of bottled samples.

The stable starts with Glaetzer Wallace (89-90 points) a blend of 70 per cent shiraz and 30 per cent grenache. Half the wine is unoaked, successfully focusing attention on the juicy and rich black fruits.  It is medium-bodied, the tannins fine and soft, and there is no better time to drink it than now.

Next up the chain is the Bishop Shiraz (93-94 points), predominantly sourced from 30 to 60 year-old vines in the Ebenezer sub-district of the Barossa, but with some 80-year old vine contribution.  It is a very lively wine. With an exuberant mix of blackberry, spice and mocha, supported by savoury tannins underwriting the structure.. The 20 per cent new French and American oak contribution melts into the background.  Accessible now, it will develop for 10 to 15 years.

The Glaetzer Barossa Valley Shiraz (94-95 points) has another dimension of concentration and richness, with layer on layer of black fruits, licorice and chocolate fully justifying the use of almost entirely new French (80 per cent) and American (20 per cent) oak.  It is anchored on 80-year-old dry-grown vines from five or six growers in the Ebenezer district.

Godolphin (95-96 points) is 70 per cent shiraz from 105-115-year-old shiraz vines and 60 to 90 year-old cabernet vines (the latter some of the oldest in the valley), all dry-grown in the northern part of the Ebenezer district, yielding less than three tonnes per hectare, some much less.   Like all these wines, in is open-fermented in small vats (in this instance one-tonne capacity), and is matured in a mix of 30 per cent new French and 70 per cent second-use French and American barrels for 15 months.  Highly perfumed, it is elegant, linear and long in the mouth, with blackcurrant and a hint of green olive from the cabernet.

Its sibling, Amon-Ra (the king of all gods in Egyptian mythology), has been given 96 to 100 [points by the modern -day wine world equivalent, Robert Parker.  The points were for the 2003, tasted just before bottling, and Parker added: "This tasting note should be accurate, if somewhat conservative for the bottled wine."  More than 100 points?  Whatever; the 2004 (96 plus points) is a better wine than the 2003, filling every corner of the mouth with an exceptional array of spiced black fruits.  Glistening and velvety, the finish goes on forever.  Only 250 cases were made of the '03 (refecting the difficult vintage), soaring to 1100 cases of the '04....