Over 200 years of history in a bottle

The Eather family is this year celebrating 200 years of agriculture in the Hunter Valley. 

To coincide with that milestone, their Meerea Park wine label has crafted a rare special release of its benchmark BLACK Shiraz from the 2024 vintage. 

The story begins with Thomas Samuel Heather arriving in Australia on second fleet ship Neptune in 1790. He married a convict from the third fleet, Elizabeth Lee, settling near Windsor before arriving in Bulga. near Singleton, in 1826. 

Adjacent to Wollombi Brook he cleared land that become the Meerea property. Somewhere along the way the H was dropped from the family name. 

The Eather brothers, Garth and Rhys, have been making Meerea Park wines at Pokolbin for 35 years now - and the BLACK shiraz is released only in outstanding vintages.

The last was back in 2018. Only 1182 bottles were made and it sells for $350. 

It's an impressive wine. Inky and intense, complex, supple, well balanced and potentially long lived. Think asphalt and cassis. 

BLACK was originally meant to be a one-off commemorative wine, the 2011 coinciding with the 20th Meerea Park vintage release. The BLACK has subsequently been released from the 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2024 vintages.

The 2024 is made from the best three barrels of shiraz that year; open fermented with daily plunging and pumping over carried out. After 18 months in 67% new and 33% one-year-old French oak, BLACK was bottled with moderate filtration.

See www.meereapark.com.au 

Yelland & Papps celebrates 20 years bigly with a tribute to family

Barossa winemakers Susan and Michael Papps are celebrating 20 years of Yelland & Papps in style.

The pair is releasing a wine in two large formats in tribute to the local family growers that have been a part of their journey. David and Angela Materne, Pete and Sarah Sonntag, Kevin and Helen Schild and Bob and Sandy Modra, and themselves.

"What has become apparent in the last few years are the business relationships that can enable you to successfully grow," says Susan Papps (Yelland).

"Our Twenty Years Five Growers Barossa Valley Shiraz 2024 Limited Edition (Vale LKY & KLY) is a contribution of all five growers that at the time of vintage 2024 had been either from the start or have joined the train as we have travelled along on our journey.

"A blend of shiraz from sub-regions Marananga, Stonewell, Vine Vale, Dorrien and Greenock reflects the soils and grape growers that make up the beautiful Barossa Valley terroir."

She says Yelland & Papps wanted to "acknowledge this milestone for some time to try and reflect, capture and celebrate 20 years of our business and making wine in a turbulent, slightly fractured and vulnerable industry".

The release is tinged with sadness as Susan's brother Leith and father Kelwyn died within a fortnight of each other in 2024.

"When designing a label for this wine, at the forefront was honouring my father and his unwavering support of our business, over the past 20 years," Susan said.

"Although my father was not part of Yelland & Papps business when this was started in 2005 by Michael and myself, he was an intrinsic monetary part of helping us along the way to start and keep progressing forward.

"The most important part of the relationship was the interest and support and his listening ear to the woes and hardships, and although he never had a magic wand to erase these issues he had the advice and was able to relate to his prior farming business."

The label features the colour of her father's prized procession: a "sky mist blue" 1960 Ford Zephyr Ute.

The special release wine has been bottled under large format only: 239 1.5-litre magnums and 28 5-litre jeroboams at $129 and $399.

See yellandandpapps.com.