Langmeil The Freedom 1843 Shiraz

Description

Langmeil The Freedom 1843 Shiraz is made from grapes sourced from Langmeil’s original vineyard, the Freedom Vineyard, in the Barossa Valley which was planted in 1843 and survives to this day. These are believed to be some of the oldest and rarest Shiraz vines in the world. The first vintage, the 1997 was released in 1999.

The vineyard was planted by German settler Christian Auricht, a blacksmith by trade, whose Lutheran family was escaping religious persecution and war in Prussia, just seven years after the state of South Australia was colonised. It is located on the banks of the North Para River adjacent to Langmeil’s modern winery. A winery was in operation at the estate from 1932 to 1988, but it had fallen into disrepair when the local Bitter and Lindner families re-established the abandoned vineyards and winery in 1996. In 2011 Richard and Shirley Lindner purchased Langmeil Winery outright with their sons, Paul (Chief Winemaker) and James (Sales and Marketing). The family remain committed to making premium Barossa wine of the highest quality and they believe that the secret lies within the vineyard.

Langmeil The Freedom 1843 Shiraz has always been vinified separately from all their other Shiraz. The old, gnarled, low-yielding dry grown vines are situated on alluvial loam and red clay over limestone and ironstone soils. The roots descend over 15 metres into the soil and the yield is a tiny 10 hl/ha or two tonnes per acre.

All the grapes for Langmeil The Freedom 1843 Shiraz are carefully hand-picked from a one-acre patch of ancient, proud and dry-grown vines. The grapes are destemmed before a relatively cool fermentation in open tanks for 7 days with twice daily pumping over before basket pressing. The wine is aged for 26 months in 46% new and 54% seasoned French oak hogsheads and barriques before blending and bottling.

In May 2014, The Langmeil Freedom 1843 Shiraz joined the prestigious Langton’s Classification VI honour roll in the category of ‘Excellent’. In 2018 it was re-classified as “outstanding” in the VII honour roll.