Sons of Eden Remus Old Vine Eden Valley Shiraz 2008

Sons of Eden is a partnership between Simon Cowham (one of Australia's most accomplished vignerons) and Corey Ryan (one of Australia's most accomplished winemakers). They make a formidable team and their exceptional skill and experience are expressed in the Sons of Eden Wines. Named in "Ten of the Best" by James Halliday in his 2010 Wine Companion.

"Simply loaded with dark fruits at the riper end of the spectrum; fruitcake, ginger, roasted meat and blackberry coulis are all evident. Big end of town stuff, but done well."  James Halliday

Simon nurtures the vines that are used in some of the Eden/Barossa valley iconic wines. Indeed, 98% of the crop is sought after by the likes of Henschke, Yalumba and Torbreck. Only 2% of the crop (mostly old vineyards) is selected for Corey to craft into exquisite reds of considerable flavour, complexity and length. It is hard to imagine a better pedigree behind any wine label.

Sons of Eden make four Shiraz-based reds. The flagship pair are the Romulus Old Vine Barossa Valley Shiraz and the Remus Old Vine Eden Valley Shiraz. Legend presents Romulus as the stronger, more powerful of the brothers, while Remus was more refined, focused and elegant. These characteristics are reflected in the wines; the Remus is the more elegant (but it is no shrinking violet) of the two and is made from 50+ year old vines in the Eden Valley and matured in French Oak hogsheads.

"The estate-grown wines are of outstanding quality” - James Halliday

"Deep inky purple in colour with bright crimson hues this wine has a brooding dark cherry and cassis spice about its bouquet.  The palate is soft and refined but with a core strength and rigidity running the entire length. Built to last - optimum year 2022. 

Hand harvested, destemmed and crushed into small 1.5 tonne open topped fermenters. A pre-fermentation cool soak ensured a slow initiation to fermentation. Ferment temperatures were allowed to peak at 32^oC before being cooled to 28^oC for the remainder of the fermentation. Hand plunged daily allowed for a gentle extraction and helped to prolong the fermentation. After an extended period on skins the ferments were pressed to new French oak hogsheads. Matured and racked only once through the 22-month maturation period provided for extended mouth-feel and wine texture development. Prior to bottling, natural clarification and stabilisation techniques were employed to ensure minimal finings and no filtration."  Sons of Eden

"Sons of Eden is one of my top picks among the hundreds of new small wineries coming out of Australia. It specializes in wines that manage to build grace and harmony into those ripe, opulent Aussie flavours. The Sons of Eden wines all strike me as exceptionally supple and smooth."  Harvey Steiman, Wine Spectator  

Expert reviews

"The 2008 Sons of Eden Remus is a totally delicious wine, complex and multi-layered, deep and compelling. Perhaps even more full-bodied than the award winning 2006 vintage, the wine is surprisingly supple given its weight and power; the high quality oak becoming more seamless with each tasting as the powerful fruit engulfs it with the passage of time."  Nick Munday, Canterbury Wines

"Bright fruit and stylish oak. Brimming with raspberries, cherries and satsuma plum flavours. The palate is very full, rounded and soft. A full flavoured wine with great energy and length of flavour."  Toni Paterson MW, Australian Boutique Wine Show 2011 and Trophy for Best Shiraz  and 56/60 points 

"Deep in colour, and simply loaded with dark fruits at the riper end of the spectrum; fruitcake, ginger, roasted meat and blackberry coulis are all evident, and while the wine is warm at 14.5%, there remains a lightness to the finish; still big end of town stuff, but done well."  James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion - 94 points 

Awards

Trophy for Best Shiraz – Australian Boutique Wine Show 2011
Gold Medal – Australian Boutique Wine Show 2011
Gold Medal – Winewise Small Vigneron Award 2011, Class 45

About the winery

When winemaker Corey Ryan and multi-skilled viticulturist Simon Cowham established Sons of Eden in 2000, they already had years of experience in South Australia's Barossa and Eden Valleys.

Ryan has racked up more than 25 Barossa vintages and worked in New Zealand with Villa Maria Estates; he was awarded 2007 New Zealand Winestate Winemaker of the Year. Back home, he was a 2016 finalist in Gourmet Traveller Wine's Australian Winemaker of the Year. But it was his time as a winemaker at Henschke that lit his fire for the Eden Valley.

Cowham's early days included selling OddBins wines in its glory days, returning from England to work for the Winemakers' Federation of Australia. He switched to grape growing by qualifying as a viticulturist and joining Yalumba as manager of its Heggies and Pewsey Vale vineyards in the mid-'90s. In 2013, Barons of Barossa anointed him Barossa Winemaker of the Year. He, too, has 25-plus Barossa vintages under his belt.

More than 25 vineyard sites across the Barossa and Eden Valleys supply fruit to Sons of Eden: 10 are directly managed and operated by the label, and the rest are supplied by handshake agreements with their loyal generational growers. The success of the arrangement is demonstrated by three Most Successful Exhibitor awards from the Barossa Wine Show, two Winewise Small Vigneron Awards and an unbroken annual stream of five-red-star ratings from 2012 to now.