Continuing our Australian theme for the month, our October prize is a must-have for all lovers of wine from the land Down Under.

James Halliday is the authority on Australian wine with an unparalleled knowledge of the industry gained over 40 years making, tasting, judging and writing about wine. His Australian Wine Companion has become the indispensible handbook for professional and amateur enthusiasts for this increasingly diverse and ever-more exciting country.

The 2011 edition is just out, with a staggering 1,487 winery reviews, ratings on over 6,000 wines and a whole lot more on the regions, vintages and information for visitors.

We’ve one copy to give away along with two bottles from one of Halliday’s top-rated 5 red star wineries, including a 93-pointer!

To enter, all you need to do is answer this simple question:

Langmeil’s Freedom Shiraz is produced from what are believed to be the world’s oldest surviving Shiraz vines, in the Freedom vineyard, Barossa Valley. In what year were these vines planted?

Simply leave your answer along with your name in the comments below and you’re in the draw. Just remember to leave us your email address when you’re leaving your comment - email addresses will not be displayed publicly and will not be used for anything other than contacting you if you win.

One lucky winner will be pulled from the hat from all entries here and on our Facebook page where you can also leave your answer. Best of luck!

Congratulations to Jonathan Flack, winner of our September Indian Summer Chillin’ contest. A super snazzy wine cooler and two bottles of Muddy Water’s finest are on their way to you, Jonathan.

Langmeil is often muttered in the same sentence as Penfolds and Glaetzer Wines. Regarded not just as one of the best wineries in Barossa Valley, it is simply one of the best there is. I firmly believe this myself, but I’m also echoing the words of the people who should know. Firstly the consumer, secondly the wine critic.

Highly rated by Robert Parker, and again awarded the coveted 5+ star rating by Australia’s authority in wine, James Halliday, we’re just happy the Australians let us bring some of it to Ireland.

The land on which Langmeil Winery now stands was purchased by a 36 year old German blacksmith, Christian Auricht. He and his family arrived in South Australia in 1838 after emigrating from eastern-central Europe (Silesia) to escape religious persecution.

The Freedom

In 1843 he planted a Shiraz vineyard which survives to this day. Believed to be one of the world’s oldest surviving Shiraz vines, remarkably, they are still producing low yields of super-concentrated fruit to this day, which is going into their flagship wine, The 1843 Freedom Shiraz.

Auricht’s grandson was the first to build a winery on the land in 1932, long before it became known as Langmeil. By 1996 the it had fallen into the hands of three local mates whose families have lived in the Barossa Valley for several generations: Richard Lindner, Carl Lindner and Chris Bitter. They restored the old buildings and beautified the gardens. After several months of tender loving care, The Freedom vineyard was successfully revived. Langmeil’s first vintage was harvested in 1997.

Orphan Bank

There is more than one Old Vine Garden. The Orphan Bank vineyard consists of vines exceeding 140 years. A first for the Barossa Valley, the Orphan Bank vineyard is the result of transplanting over 300 vines from a 140 year old vineyard in Tanunda which was destined to be destroyed. It took 18 months to re-plant the vines on the south bank of the North Para River at Langmeil Winery.  The operation was 95% successful and the first post-transplant fruit was picked in 2008.

The Fifth Wave

Another plot of land situated in the southern reaches of the Barossa Valley, just out of the town of Lyndoch, showcases a diversity of soil profiles and aspects. The Fifth Wave Grenache vineyard is located here, named so because this is now the 5th generation of Barossa winemakers. Planted in 1953 on deep sandy soil, the dry grown 4.5 acre vineyard produces a rare, low yielding crop making for very small parcels of premium Grenache.

Trust me when I say, it really doesn’t get much better than Langmeil. The best thing is, you don’t have to be a millionaire banker to drink Langmeil, starting at a very reasonable €11.99 per bottle for the month of March. Buy two save up to €10 on Langmeil.

When we stumbled across the Barossa Wine Traveller (here), a book described as “The bible of the Barossa”, we just had to share the two chapters on our favourite wineries with our readers. Langmeil and Glaetzer wines are consistently rated among the very top echelon of Australian Wineries by critics and consumers alike.

Wine writer Tyson Stelzer, co-author of the Barossa Wine Traveller, has very kindly granted us permission to re-publish the chapter on Langmeil (below) and the chapter on Glaetzer, which will be published next Friday (12th).

To step into Langmeil is to take a trip back to 1842 and into the second German settlement of the Barossa Valley. The old buildings of the original village are still standing, as is the 1843 Freedom vineyard, believed to contain the oldest Shiraz vines in Australia, and perhaps the world. The abandoned property was purchased in 1996 by three local mates, Richard Lindner, Chris Bitter and Carl Lindner, who have since refurbished the winery and restored the village and vineyards to their former glory.

My place

“This is quite a historic little area,” Richard points out. “There was a butcher, a baker, a cobbler’s shop and a blacksmith named Christian Auricht. It was Auricht who planted the vineyard in 1843.”

“We’re so lucky that these old buildings are still standing,” says Carl. “There was a council order for our old barn to be demolished. So we undemolished it! The walls were bending outwards so, bit by bit, we pulled them inwards with rods and used a bulldozer to push them upright. Eventually we got them square, and it lifted the roof up as well! We had to build a wall to prop it up, so it’s back into shape and pretty solid now, even though you can see that the roof isn’t quite perfect!”

Barossa dirt

“When we came here in 1996, this place hadn’t crushed a grape in eight years,” recalls Richard. “Some of the vines had been pulled out, ready to be burnt, but thankfully they left the old vines intact.”

“The old Freedom vineyard was pretty derelict,” adds Carl. “There were vines and weeds growing wild all over the place. When we first pruned the vines in 1996, we didn’t know if they were alive or dead. We had to cut them back quite heavily because they were sprawled out all over the place. It took us a few years to get it up to scratch.

“We love the old vines here. Old vines have been a passion of mine, going back to the days when I was involved with St Hallett. We found out then about the importance of keeping the old vines, because they had something extra to offer. We started St Hallett Old Block Shiraz in 1980. Soon after that, the vine pull came in and growers were starting to yank out some of their best vineyards, which was a bloody shame. I know I saved four vineyards in that period. It was bloody tragic that our heritage was lost by the government giving cheques to growers.”

Visiting Langmeil

“We love the history of this place and we enjoy passing it on to visitors,” says Richard. “We take people for tours of the 1843 Freedom vineyard. A coach turns up around midday every day and whoever wants to join the tour can jump on board. There are usually one or two tours a day. We take them out for a walk in the vineyard, show them all of the old historical points around the area and they get a real sense of the history of the Barossa.

“During vintage, visitors watch vintage in action to get a real feel for what happens here. They can stand there, see all of the basket presses going and watch the girls hosing over the open fermenters. This is part of the tour during vintage.

“We’ve also got a little museum with some old equipment that we show them also. It’s a good little tour, and people love it. At the end they can taste every wine in our portfolio at cellar door, including The Freedom.”

You wouldn’t read about it

“We had old vines on a vineyard near town that was rezoned for housing development,” Carl explains. “So we decided to relocate them to the spare land that we have here on the river flat. It’s pretty tricky to transport an old vine to another vineyard! We used a machine with three big tapered blades that formed a cone to dig a hole, then drove the same machine half a kilometre to the old vineyard and used it to dig out the vine and put it in the new hole. A day later you could hardly tell that the vine had been shifted! It’s been quite successful and those vines now make our ‘Orphan Bank’ Shiraz. We invited people to adopt a vine and we now have an annual picking day when they come in and pick the grapes from their vine.”

You can view a great little video of the guys digging up, moving and replanting the vines on their web site, www.langmeil.com.au.

Barossa Character

“I collect all sorts of old stuff,” says Carl Lindner. “We’ve got quite a few pieces of old winemaking equipment scattered around the property. All sorts of things, from the old press to old stalk carts and pad filters. But I can’t find a spot for my Jags yet! I’m a bit of a Jag buff. I have E-Types, Mk2s and XKs. I’ve also got the oldest Jaguar in Australia, a 1932 SS1. I’ve got 35 Jaguars in all, worth about $1.5 million. I have a full-time mechanic to look after them and a full-time body builder and we’re looking at building a new C-Type next year. One day I’d like to start a business with luxury accommodation and luxury tours of the Barossa.”

Local knowledge

“Tanunda Cellars is the best wine shop in the Barossa,” says Richard. “Trevor Harch has got some interesting stuff there. He’s a great guy and we’re lucky to have his support. He supports Barossa wineries and the wineries support him, so if they’ve got back vintages or anything unusual available, they’ll supply them to him.”

The Barossa Wine Traveller is available from wineries throughout Barossa, as well as leading book stores across Australia.

You’d think Santa would have enough to do at this time of the year but it seems even the big man has time to help out in one of Australia’s best wineries.

We didn’t think they needed the help but the team at Langmeil captured these pics on security cameras in their Barossan winery. With some elvish intervention, the 2009 vintage could be one to watch out for!

Langmeil range available from Curious Wines here (although we’ll be waiting a while for this particular vintage!).

Old vines generally make better wines. With age, yields naturally decline leading to more concentrated grapes that can result in amazingly complex wines. Australia’s Barossa Valley consists of the world’s oldest surviving pre-Phylloxera Cabernet and Shiraz vineyards. The Aussie’s were fortunate enough to avoid the kind of devastation Europe endured in the late 19th century from the Phylloxera plague.

The story of the Old Vine Gardens in the Barossa has somewhat of a chequered past but now possesses an optimistic future. Their initial survival is a tribute to the pioneering grape growers, however, as these precious and rare Old Vine Gardens were being grubbed into extinction in the 1980s. The introduction of the “vine pull scheme” after the wine industry suffered a significant decline and growers needed help to get them through troubled times, saw many Old Vine Gardens sold off and bulldozed.

If it was not for some like minded Barossans who promoted their uniqueness in the world of wine and were able to showcase the virtues of these wines that were made from these Old Vine Gardens, almost all would have been lost.

The oldest surviving pre-Phylloxera vines belong to Penfolds and Langmeil respectively. All at Langmeil are convinced the best way to ensure the unique qualities of the Old Vine Gardens is to continue to make and showcase wines from these vineyards. Hence the Langmeil Old Vine Garden wines are vinified and bottled separately to produce wines that are as true to vine and vineyard as they are unique.

As the wine trade, media and consumers continue to appreciate and understand what the Barossa and other local regions can offer the world with wines made from old vines, there is hope that the absolute rareness of these wines will also be valued. Very few other regions can offer pre-Phylloxera vines grown on their own roots that not only survive but continue to thrive. This is true history in a glass that is irreplaceable and non-replicable. To that end, Langmeil is part of a movement to create an official register of Old Vine Gardens.

For an old vine wine, click here to view Langmeil’s Orphan Bank Shiraz from 100-140 year old vines, and keep on the look out for a new arrival to the Curious range. The Freedom 1843 Shiraz from 165 year old vines is on its way.

Information sourced from Langmeil’s “The old Vine Garden Release”. Picture obtained from www.langmeilwinery.com.au