Agricola Mailer

[I Love Shiraz]

Anyone purchase off the Agricola mailer?

I still haven't made up my mind in which wines to purchase yet.

[mychurch]

No room at home, but still ordered 6 (half of last years order). Kept up the Flaxman and 1 each of the others. Some wines you need to wait for a review, some you don’t - this is one of them.

[Pat]

I have ordered some of them as well, looking forward to tasting them after they have a sleep for awhile in the cellar.

[ticklenow1]

I ordered 3 of each.

We have decided the Standish, Sami Odi, Eperosa, Rockford and Agricola will be pretty much our must buy Barossa Shiraz's every year from now on.

I seem to be buying more Grenache, Chardonnay and foreign muck these days than Shiraz....

[SipAndANibble]

I’m glad I found this forum, lots of good recommendations here for wines I was not previously familiar with !

[Rossco]

I grabbed a 6 pack

2 x 2023 DWxHV
2 x 2023 Ebenezer
1 x 2023 K’ Sands
1 x 2023 Flaxman Valley

[Ian S]

I’m glad I found this forum, lots of good recommendations here for wines I was not previously familiar with !

Yes, if nothing else, we're very dangerous enablers

[Mike Hawkins]

I’m sitting the 2023 vintage out for Barossa shiraz .

There are plenty of average wines according to those in the know…. And plenty of good ones from 2021 and 2022 yet to be released.

[phillisc]

Mike, I share similar sentiments. There are still 100-200 bottles that I would like from 2021/22.
I am not so convinced with 2023, late with some additional rain leading to disease pressure. Think 2023 will be the try before you buy vintage.
Cheers Craig

[SipAndANibble]

I’m sitting the 2023 vintage out for Barossa shiraz .

There are plenty of average wines according to those in the know…. And plenty of good ones from 2021 and 2022 yet to be released.

Can I ask where you get your vintage information from?

I’m glad I found this forum, lots of good recommendations here for wines I was not previously familiar with !

Yes, if nothing else, we're very dangerous enablers

Hahaha, it’s also amusing to see the banter between yourselves

[Matt@5453]

Mike, I share similar sentiments. There are still 100-200 bottles that I would like from 2021/22.
I am not so convinced with 2023, late with some additional rain leading to disease pressure. Think 2023 will be the try before you buy vintage.
Cheers Craig

totally agree on 2023. There was a bit of rain about, but was a good end / long finish to the vintage. In my view, good wines will be variety and sub region specific

[Matt@5453]

I’m sitting the 2023 vintage out for Barossa shiraz .

There are plenty of average wines according to those in the know…. And plenty of good ones from 2021 and 2022 yet to be released.

Can I ask where you get your vintage information from?

There is an element of experience e.g. playing close attention / making mental note of the conditions from spring (flowering & crop set), then through the important periods of Jan to say April (ripening etc),and talking to people who may know. Wineries often refer to them in their communications, but always use caution when reading these

There are also industry documents available on the web where wine regions note vintage conditions.

Agree with Mikes comments on 2021 & 2022. 2024 is shaping up really well too.

[SipAndANibble]

Yeah I get what you’re saying, combination of speaking with people who are familiar but also keeping tabs on weather patterns through the crucial times. I guess one really does need to become familiar with the particular areas that you drink the wine from !

[mychurch]

Aramex again...why cant people just use Auspost. They wont knock on my door and they will just leave the wine outside. Not so bad at this time of year, but the same happens in the summer months.

[A_Steady]

Aramex again...why cant people just use Auspost. They wont knock on my door and they will just leave the wine outside. Not so bad at this time of year, but the same happens in the summer months.

Aramex doesn’t deliver to my location so they pass it onto another courier who also don’t deliver to me…. Then I have a 20+ minute drive to pickup from a collection point. Callum gave me the option of Auspost but it was $39 more so a drive it will be.

[BHCC1]

Yes, Aramex just hopeless. We are 50 k’s from the Melbourne GPO and by their reckoning a rural delivery. That means passing delivery on to a “local courier”. They won’t identify who the local courier is and therefore there is no opportunity to track the progress of your order. In the dark for almost three weeks before our Giaconda wines arrived this year!
Wineries really need to find couriers that provide a better level of service than Aramex seems capable of.

[Mike Hawkins]

I’m sitting the 2023 vintage out for Barossa shiraz .

There are plenty of average wines according to those in the know…. And plenty of good ones from 2021 and 2022 yet to be released.

Can I ask where you get your vintage information from?

I’m glad I found this forum, lots of good recommendations here for wines I was not previously familiar with !

Yes, if nothing else, we're very dangerous enablers

Hahaha, it’s also amusing to see the banter between yourselves

Some of the better known boutique makers… but I’m not going to break their confidence by naming them!

Buying every year to keep verticals going is a fools game IMO. I learned the hard way by buying 89, 93, 95 and 00 from SA. I now buy double the quantities in the great vintages and sit the poor ones out. Almost everything I’ve tasted from 21 and 22 from the Barossa have been really good or better, hence my preference for those two vintages in recent times.

[phillisc]

Yes agree Mike. 2011/17/20 are hardly represented in my cellar, but 16/18/19/21/22 will be slightly oversubscribed.
Went to the Ed Shiraz day yesterday... will write some notes here when I have the time. But 2020 consistently disappointing. Coriole Lloyd is a classic case in point...have a few vintages of this, but 2020 starts off nicely but fruit can't find it's way through and then it just dies.
I suspect that 2023 will be largely the same.
Cheers Craig

[SipAndANibble]

Hrmm ! I’ve got the email for the Agricola mailer but now not so sure regarding the 23 vintage !

[Scotty vino]

Hey sip. In my experience I’d be careful blanketing an entire vintage or avoiding it . I hear bad things from certain vintages in various regions but that often gets turned on its head when I speak to various winemakers at cellar doors and wine shows . Not to say 2023 wasnt up too much , but reading into hype or lack of can be somewhat limiting .

[phillisc]

Hey sip. In my experience I’d be careful blanketing an entire vintage or avoiding it . I hear bad things from certain vintages in various regions but that often gets turned on its head when I speak to various winemakers at cellar doors and wine shows . Not to say 2023 wasnt up too much , but reading into hype or lack of can be somewhat limiting .

I would agree with this somewhat...although tasting a bucket load of 2020 Shiraz yesterday, this vintage was completely belted out of the park by the 2021s (and freely endorsed and agreed to by about 30 winemakers from CV/BV/MV/AH)...2020 is a miserable vintage.
The issue of 2023 is it will be dwarfed by 2021/22 and 24.
Certainly buy whatever you want, particularly if you have the resources to do so, but I now see less than perfect vintages as a chance to be very very selective and to have a breather. Remember, winemakers/marketers/distributors/retailers/scribes will gloss up every vintage because people need to make a living. Its not until the public sees that certain wines were not made, or you do your own assessment and after trying a few dozen or so from vintage X, your palate is the most reliable.
Don't get me started on 2017

Apologies for thread drift here, perhaps someone can open one of Callum's wines from 2022 and 2023 and with allowance for age, see which wine takes the points.

Cheers Craig

[SipAndANibble]

Some good feedback - I think I might hold off for now, I need to get more familiar with everything first before I dive in. I’m also in a precarious buying position at the moment with the wife not overly enthused of my wine purchases. Will keep my eye on it though. Cheers

[I Love Shiraz]

Some good feedback - I think I might hold off for now, I need to get more familiar with everything first before I dive in. I’m also in a precarious buying position at the moment with the wife not overly enthused of my wine purchases. Will keep my eye on it though. Cheers

my wife is not enthused by my wine purchases either. I have to back off the buying a bit to pacify her.

[SipAndANibble]

Same, am choosing my battles

I’ve told her though that if the Wendouree order form comes through I’m ordering , so I’ll wait to see if I get that. Otherwise she probably has no clue the difference between Wendouree , standish, wynns JR or agricola so I might be able to slip atleast one through regardless

It’s also a bit of my time to shine if we look back to covid when she was ordering a bazillion things in lockdown

Or deliver to the office and fill the wine fridge under the cloak of darkness

But yes, one step at a time !

[Hacker]

I’ve ordered a six pack this year, and happy to do so as certain producers rise above vintage variation. Callum and the Bradys being two Stirling examples.

My wife is now my ally, having tasted thru both the good and the bad of vinuous offers. Most wineries mentioned in these various threads are inside knowledge and not readily obvious to the average wine punter, although TWF is doing a good job getting the word out. My other fave is Dappled.

[VinoEd]

Well, I’m waiting for my 2023 order to arrive but have given a 2021 a trial to have a basis for comparison. This is the Flaxman Valley (which I somehow ended up with a dozen of, no idea how that happened).

Still got the purple hue I recall from an initial one on release although it’s softened a bit. Lots of red fruit, sour acid vibe, mouth coating, not overly tannic, medium finish. (Realise my notes may not make heaps of sense, just call it as I taste it).

Thanks Ed

[ticklenow1]

I agree on the whole with regard to certain poor vintages, but there are always a few gems even from poor vintages. One thing I respect some wineries for is when they don't release a wine from certain vintages they don't think is good enough to put there usual label on.

I didn't buy much 2011, but I wish I'd have bought more Marius and Wendouree. Both excellent wines regardless of the vintage though both earlier drinkers. 2011 Cirillo 1850's Grenache has turned out pretty good as well. Had a bottle with Marco last year after I didn't believe him about his 2011. He was right and I was wrong, his Grenache was exceptional. I didn't buy my usual amounts from 2017 either. Barossa Cabernet was exceptional though and bought a bit of Hunter Shiraz instead. 2020 was difficult and I only bought what I had tasted and liked, which wasn't a huge amount. Apart from my pretty much every vintage buys (Agricola amongst them), I'll also do the same for 2023 as 2020, just buy what I like when I taste. 2023 Brothers at War Peacekeeper Grenache was beautiful upon tasting recently for instance.

My cellar is bulging, so I need to drink more and buy less anyway.


Ian

[JamieAdelaide]

I bought 3 of each of his wines. Drank so much aged Shiraz this month in the bitter winter, decided to replenish stocks.

[Rossco]

I bought 3 of each of his wines. Drank so much aged Shiraz this month in the bitter winter, decided to replenish stocks.

Nice one .
Good reviews out for all 4 offerings (some Stellar). Will be great to visit them in a few years. Very happy with my purchase and Callum doing amazing things even in lesser vintages. Reminds me a bit of when Fraser started out.

[SipAndANibble]

I recently received my delivery of 2 of each from 2023. I love the labels.