Sons of Eden Romulus Old Vine Barossa Valley Shiraz 2009

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.

"I tasted the 2009 Sons of Eden Romulus recently at dinner and was quite mesmerised by its beauty. As a mature wine it is incredibly powerful, complex and layered. A veritable powerhouse."  Nick Munday

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.

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

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 and the Romulus is the bigger of the two, a plush Barossa red made from 80+ year old vines in the Barossa Valley and matured in new American Oak hogsheads.

"Deep ruby and garnet in colour this alluring bouquet of vanilla chocolate and coffee bean meld with dark cherry and spicy plum notes. A powerful and fleshy palate displaying great length with layers of complex flavours. Built to last - optimum year 2025.

Hand harvested, destemmed and crushed into small 1.5 tonne open topped fermenters. A variety of fermentation techniques across different old vine batches contributes to a range of wine outcomes that are important in creating the layers of flavours and texture in the Romulus. All ferments, however, were hand plunged daily ensuring a gentle extraction and after a long period on skins the ferments were pressed to new American Oak hogsheads. Matured and racked only once through the 20-month maturation period provides for extended mouth-feel and wine palate texture. 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

"I tasted the 2009 Sons of Eden Romulus recently at dinner and was quite mesmerised by its beauty. As a mature wine it is incredibly powerful, complex and layered. A veritable powerhouse. Drink to 2030."  Nick Munday, Canterbury Wines - 97+ points (Tasted Oct 2021)

"From two very low-yielding vineyards over 80 years old. Deep purple-crimson; both the bouquet and palate walk along a very different path to that of Remus, the fruit flavours darker, but with lots of vanilla, coffee bean and spice highlighted by 20 months in new American oak hogsheads; despite all this flavour, the medium-bodied palate has elegance. 250 dozen made. Drink by 2024."  James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion - 94 points 

Awards

Gold Medal - Barossa Wine Show 2012, Shiraz 2009 & older
Gold Medal - Barossa Wine Show 2011, Shiraz 2009 

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, 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.