Winery & Vintage Info
Pirathon is an ancient word for pinnacle and we believe Shiraz is the pinnacle grape of the Barossa and that the north-western Barossa is the pinnacle sub-appellation for Shiraz.
Pirathon Shiraz is a full bodied wine encompassing the great flavour, texture and structure of the north-western Barossa. Higher altitude, gullies, hills, slopes, and undulations provide different topographies, microclimates and individualistic parcels of grapes with unique flavours and characters from their own site. We work with dedicated high quality growers in the north-western Barossa, many of whom have been growing grapes here for generations. Pirathon Shiraz showcases and celebrates the pinnacle north-western Barossa region and pinnacle Barossa grape with a complex and distinguished wine. Troy Kalleske, Winemaker
Vintage 2015 produced excellent wines. It began with a wet Winter followed by a very dry growing season with less than half the average rainfall. Spring was warmer than average leading to an earlier budburst and early vintage. Summer brought average temperatures, ensuring the dry conditions were not stressful to the vines, and a slow even ripening ensued. Quality is brilliant, certainly one of the highlights in recent years.
The grapes were harvested from the low-yielding vineyards of traditional family growers in the north-western Barossa districts of Greenock, Moppa, Belvedere, Stonewell, Seppeltsfield, Koonunga and Ebenezer. Each vineyard adds its own exclusive dimension to Pirathon Shiraz and combined they produce the ultimate blend.
The wine was vintaged at the Kalleske winery at Greenock by Tony & Troy Kalleske. Following harvest, each individual lot of grapes was crushed into a separate open top fermenter. During fermentation, hand pump-overs gently extracted colour and flavour from the grapes. The fermented grapes were pressed with a traditional press. The wines were then filled to new and seasoned American, French, Russian and Hungarian oak hogsheads for maturation for eighteen months before each lot of wine was racked from the barrel and carefully blended. The wine was bottled without fining, ensuring the true expression of the vineyards in the bottle. Winery Notes
