Agricola Vintners Ebenezer 2020

Callum Powell is one of the most exciting young names in the Barossa. He is the son of Dave Powell, the winemaker behind Torbreck, and he worked at J.L. Chave in Hermitage, which shows in a house style of lifted, restrained, Rhône-minded Shiraz. Ebenezer is named for the home of the Hoffmann family in the Northern Barossa, and it comes from two of their oldest blocks, the Dimchurch Home Old vines, around 70 years old, and the Dallwitz Old vines, planted in the 1880s. The soils are ironstone, red clay and calcrete, farmed organically and increasingly biodynamically. The grapes are hand-picked and fermented as 100% whole clusters, with native yeasts in closed stainless-steel tanks and three to four weeks on skins, then aged for 12 months in puncheons and barriques. Callum compares his two Shirazes to a pair of Hermitage vineyards: the Flaxman, he says, has the bones, like Les Bessards, and the Ebenezer has the flesh, like Le Méal.

The result is a Barossa Shiraz of depth, but not weight. Dark cherry, blackberry and plum come with savoury spice and a fresh herbal thread, over a focused, lively palate where meaty richness is balanced by bright acidity, and firm, finely knit tannins give it structure and drive. Retailers describe a sinewy, restrained purity in a larger frame than the Flaxman.