Editors notes
“Whilst Shiraz might be the poster boy for the Barossa, we believe blending it with Grenache and Mataro produces the best drinking wines from this region.
Thanks to our good mates the Riebke brothers and other Barossa growers whose families have stuck by these varieties for the past 100 years or more, we’re privileged to have fruit from very old vines to make our GMS blends. In 2002, our first vintage, we made one wine…an unoaked GMS blend we called Joshua. With that wine selling out quickly, we decided to have a crack at releasing a second wine from the vintage, a different take on the original blend and aged in old seasoned oak for 12 months. Loosely interpreted, Avatar can mean ‘transformation’…so a pretty good moniker for a wine we fondly refer to as the older brother for our Josh’.
The blend percentages for Avatar might change each vintage, but the recipe doesn’t vary much…Grenache (about 50% in 2013) for spice and bright red fruits, Mataro (30%) for some savoury earthiness and depth….Shiraz (20%) for plump plum and rich black fruit. The time in oak…and the choice of old seasoned oak…ensures it serves only as a seasoning to add complexity and savoury nuance. With vines this old, we want the fruit and earth to speak with the clearest voice.
KYM TEUSNER, WINEMAKER
Details
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Low Tannin (Low Tannin)Tannic (Tannic)
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Aroma
- Red Fruits
- Redcurrant
- Smoky
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Palate
- Earthy
- Jammy
- Red Fruits
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Critic Scores & reviews
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James Halliday
95"Grenache mataro shiraz. The bouquet is fragrant, pointing directly at the medium-bodied marriage of red and black cherry, raspberry and plum. It has balance and length, the finish and lingering aftertaste highlights"
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Locations
Australia
Australia's wine industry is a thriving part of the country's economy, contributing significantly to employment, production, export, and tourism. In fact, the industry is the fourth-largest wine exporter in the world, shipping out 760 million liters of wine to countries including France, Italy, Spain, and the UK. One of the key factors contributing to Australia's success as a "New World" wine producer is the formal export and marketing of its wines through Wine Australia.
Australia's wine regions are scattered across the south and southeast, with almost every state boasting its own vineyards. Victoria, for example, is home to an impressive 21 wine regions. Some of the most famous wine regions in Australia include Margaret River, Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Eden Valley, Clare Valley, Hunter Valley, Yarra Valley, and local regions to New South Wales such as Cowra, Southern Highlands, and Mudgee.
Australian winemakers are known for producing a diverse range of grape varieties, with Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot Noir being among the most popular. They tend to focus on producing wines that are ripe, fruit-forward, and easy to drink, using modern winemaking techniques and equipment such as stainless steel tanks and temperature-controlled fermentation.
With its bold, fruit-driven flavors and reputation for quality and diversity, Australian wine has become a popular choice for wine lovers around the world. And with such a broad range of wine regions and grape varieties, there's something for every palate to enjoy.
South Australia
If you like Australian wine, then you probably like South Australia wine. The rich reds produced there put Australia on the wine-making map of the world. With over 40% of the country's vineyards, South Australia can rightfully call itself the wine state.
Wines are produced in several regions throughout the state, though many are naturally grouped together, like Barossa and Eden Valleys, only 15 minutes apart. They include such regions as Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, Eden Valley, Coonawarra, Adelaide Hills, Kangaroo Island, Langhorne Creek, The Limestone Coast, McLaren Vale and Wrattonbully to name but a few!
Barossa Valley boasts some of the oldest vines in Australia dating back to 1843 and produces some of the world's finest Shiraz, whilst the 'terra rossa' soils of Coonawarra is most suited to producing outstanding Cabernet Sauvignons. If you're a fan of Riesling, Clare Valley is a great place to explore and for a Maritime climate not dissimilar to parts of the Italian coastline, seek out the wines from McLaren Vale.
Barossa Valley
The Barossa Valley is about an hour and a half drive to the North of Adelaide, in South Australia and is the oldest wine region in the country, founded by German settlers. The region can be credited with putting Australian wine on the world wine map, thanks to Shiraz, which thrives in the warm climate (though Hunter Valley Semillon also contributed.)
For many years traditionalist wine makers thought the grape variety was best suited to the cooler climates of the Rhone Valley and that the variety would cook in the warmth of the Australian sun. Although South Australian Shiraz is a bigger, beefier wine than its southern French counterpart Syrah, no one can deny the region's propensity to produce world-class wines.
Not only Shiraz is cultivated in Barossa Valley, with other red varieties such as Grenache, Mourvedre (Mataro) and to a lesser extent Cabernet Sauvignon. The white varieties that thrive best seem to be Semillon, Chardonnay and Rhone varietals like viognier, Marsanne and Roussane.
The Valley has many subregions which all have unique terroirs. Seppeltsfield, Marananga, Greenock are to name but a few. With a huge number of wineries in such a small area and a host of accommodation, the region is very popular for wine tourism. In the words of Master of Wine Jancis Robinson, the Barossa Valley became "Australia's quintessential wine region."
About the brand Teusner
They say it takes a lot of good beer to make great wine and Teusner Wines is a case in point. It was over a few beers at the pub in 2001 that former Torbreck winemaker Kym Teusner and brother-in-law Mick Page first got wind that a couple of local grape growers were thinking about pulling out their 85-year-old Grenache vines. They quickly put forward an offer that saw the vines stay in the ground and the fruit come to them, kicking off with a plan to makes the kind of wines they liked to drink – when not drinking beer, of course.
Keeping it simple remains at the heart of Teusner Wines. The old Barossa vines are given all they need - and nothing they don’t - to flourish into the best wines that they can be, while small batch production and a genuine pleasure for the daily ins and out of winery life has seen Teusner Wines become a much-loved icon of the Barossa Valley.
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