Rockford Basket Press Shiraz 2017

James Suckling Top 100 Wines of Australia 2022

"Rockford can only be described as an icon, no matter how overused that word may be."  James Halliday

Rockford Basket Press Shiraz, like Penfolds Grange, is one of Australia’s most collected and most cherished red wines. Fruit is sourced from some of the best old Barossa vineyards with vine age from 60 to 130 years.

"Tasting this graceful Barossa Valley shiraz is like stepping into a time machine back to the region in the 1950s or early 1960s. I love the wide array of ripe yet delicate red fruit aromas and the layered fine tannins that give this enormous textural complexity. Tons of subtle spicy notes at the extremely long velvety finish. Develops so well in the glass I’d expect this to age very well."  James Suckling

Rockford Winery (click on image to play video)

Expert reviews

"Tasting this graceful Barossa Valley shiraz is like stepping into a time machine back to the region in the 1950s or early 1960s. I love the wide array of ripe yet delicate red fruit aromas and the layered fine tannins that give this enormous textural complexity. Tons of subtle spicy notes at the extremely long velvety finish. Develops so well in the glass I’d expect this to age very well. Drink or hold."  James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com - 97 points and Top 100 Wines of Australia 2022

"Deep, soft ruby colour with a tinge of purple. The bouquet is fragrant, red-fruited, gently minty and open-knit, with a lick of char-oak, the palate following on from there with savoury flavours and drying but supple tannins surrounding a delicious core of sweet fruit. The palate is quite intense, deep and lush with a trace of mint. It's weighty, satisfying and flavoursome in its relatively unpolished but hearty way. Drink 2021-2031."  Huon Hooke, The Real Review - 94 points

"A soupy, rich shiraz, soft and a little diffuse, though it seems there's still plenty to talk about regarding what's in the glass (and beyond). It doesn't feel like one of the pedigree BP shiraz releases, more high volume wine than high grade, laden with blueberry and purple plum fruit, tobacco-woody notes, lemony scents and a tangy-bitter-lemony-thin-dry finish with this nagging feel of 'is it missing some stuffing?' that kept me awake a little longer than needed. Sure, dark chocolate and raspberry sweetness make a mark, and there's a general sense of lush, lactic texture for enthusiasts of the release to anchor into the familiar. Warming too, generous, yes to an extent, just that irk of breadth and missing tension. In the end, you get a reasonably satisfying, come hither red, in a way. Drink 2021-2030."  Mike Bennie, The Wine Front - 90 points

Awards

Top 100 Wines of Australia 2022 - James Suckling

About the winery

Rockford Wines is a small boutique wine producer based in South Australia's Barossa Valley. They produce high quality traditional wines made from some of the best old Barossa vineyards. Rockford is best known for their Basket Press Shiraz and Sparkling Black Shiraz, which are produced in limited quantities.

Founder and winemaker, Robert O'Callaghan, purchased an 1850s stone settler’s cottage and outbuildings on five acres of land in the village of Krondorf in 1971. He then gradually built a courtyard shaped winery in the same style and from the same materials as the original buildings. O'Callaghan starting making wine in 1984 and Rockford was born.

"During the twenty years prior to establishing Rockford, I worked for several Barossa winemakers. This allowed me access to many of the finest Barossa growers, so by the time I started Rockford, I knew exactly the kind of wine I wanted to make and precisely which vineyard would give me the grapes I needed. It also allowed me to continue the established tradition of winemakers building long-term partnerships with growers rather than owning their own vineyards.

Many of the growers have vines that were planted on their own roots, sixty to one hundred years ago. The partnership not only gives Rockford access to exceptional grapes from ancient vines but also provides consistency and reliability that is not possible from a single vineyard.

The vintage shed is equipped with plant from the pioneer era – I collected these valuable pieces when other Australian wineries discarded them as they modernised. This allows Rockford to carry on the traditional Australian winemaking techniques, but more importantly, the winery is the same scale, age and pace as our growers’ vineyards.

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, attitude, and equipment to produce rich, earthy, soft, generous wines that will age; the kind that I drank in my youth.

My grandparents on both sides and my parents 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 winemaker, 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 winemakers from previous generations with whom I associated 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."  Robert O'Callaghan

Robert O'Callaghan belongs to a genre of visionary winemakers that include Max Schubert, Peter Lehmann, Jeffrey Grosset, Brian Croser and David Hohnen. His protégés include Chris Ringland and Dave Powell.

Rockford Wines has had a profound influence on winemaking philosophy and wine style in the Barossa. Providing the inspiration for a whole generation of winemakers 'the Rockford school' embraces the inherent qualities of old vine Shiraz: the physicality of winemaking where muscle and personal touch transform the process into an art-form; the traditional tools of trade (basket press, open fermenter) and the complementary nuances of American and French oak maturation.