Winery: Teusner

Region: Barossa Valley

Variety: Shiraz

Vintage: 2008

Your Wine Guy says:

Sourcing fruit from vines ranging in age from 40-90 years old provides the Albert with great colour and an abundance of sweet ripe black and blue berry fruit with the oak playing a supporting role on the nose. The full bodied palate reveals layers of subtle, complex black fruit flavours and velvety texture with plenty of fine tannin and all of the elements to indicate a long and fruitful existence.  A beautiful wine for drinking now and will continue to drink well over the next 10 years.

94 Points YWG Drink to 2018+

Critics say:

“Dark chocolate and savoury smoked meat nuances sit pleasantly atop rich black fruit; the palate follows the theme with impressive concentration, turned earth, tar, blackberry and chewy tannin in abundance; rich and ripe, but not overdone, the finish is long, fleshy and harmonious. Shiraz. Screwcap.”
95 Points Drink to 2020 James Halliday’s Wine Companion

“I believe Kym Teusner described the 2008 vintage as being ‘a punter’s vintage’, and if I’m not mistaken this wine’s going to make a lot of ‘em pretty happy.

Blue and black fruits, mint, coal, nougat and cedar wood. It’s medium to full bodied with fine tannins, a pleasing sort of nutty texture (and flavour) along with a balanced fresh drinking appeal. Has length and a fair amount of vibrancy and charm, especially given the vintage conditions. It’s a pretty fair commendation to say we knocked a bottle off over the course of the evening and enjoyed it thoroughly.”
93 Points Drink 2010-2018 Gary Walsh The Wine Front

The winemaker says:

Colour: The very deep colour reflects the intensity of the wine.

Nose: Smoky notes complement the rich black fruits and tarry cassis aromas.

Palate: The palate is medium to full bodied with an elegant structure and round opulent flavours of ripe blackberries and plums. The finish is long and luscious with well balanced tannin, acidity and alcohol, enabling the wine to age gracefully for up to 10 years. Kym Teusner

“This wine is the namesake of my grandfather Albert Alfred Teusner - a man that I greatly respect for his tireless hard work and commitment.
Albert is produced from two small vineyards of low yielding unirrigated vines aged between 45 and 90 years of age in Gommersal and Ebenezer, Barossa Valley.
During fermentation, portions of the juice are taken off daily to ferment in the new French oak barrels used to mature the resultant wine. After 12 hours, this juice is returned to the ferment and replaced by fresh ferment. We believe that this process allows better integration of the new oak with the wine.
At the conclusion of ferment the wine is put to hogsheads, 30% of which are new tight grained French oak. After around 18 months the barrels are classified and the wine is blended. It is then returned to oak for a further 6 months to fully integrate before reblending and bottling.” Kym Teusner

Winery Information:

Kym Teusner is one of the Barossa’s young guns but with an old world influence. Many of his peers are making massively rich and ripe reds (often at very high prices), however Kym Teusner has aimed to balance the natural power of old vine Barossa material with careful, reductive winemaking to produce wines of incredible elegance and complexity. His wines are about as close as the Barossa gets to reminding the drinker of the Southern Rhône Valley in France.

The value for money they offer is quite astounding.

Kym was lucky enough to be guided by one of Australia’s (and perhaps the world’s) best old-vine specialist Dave Powell at Torbreck wines - renowned for their extremely high quality wines using the classic Rhône varieties like Shiraz, Viognier, Grenache, Mataro that regularly fetch very high prices sourcing fruit from very old vines within the Barossa.

Teusner formed as a partnership between Kym Teusner and brother- in-law Michael Page. Teusner Wines are focused on protecting very old, low-yielding, dry-grown Barossa vines. Kym Teusner was crowned Gourmet Traveller Young Winemaker of the Year in 2007 and produces wines which encapsulate the essence of the Barossa Valley, with remarkable complexity and elegance.

“Our philosophy is to produce only exceptional, affordable wines by being very selective about the fruit that we source from old, well maintained vineyards. These vineyards reliably produce balanced, complex fruit which we guide, with minimal inputs, into wine. Our fruit sources are predominantly family and close friends, which allows us this selectivity in which fruit we vinify.” Kym Teusner

Australian wine authority and critic, James Halliday (in Halliday’s Wine Companion), has awarded Teusner Wines a 5 Red Star rating, an accolade afforded to only the top 8% of Australia’s wineries.

Halliday describes the meaning of his 5 Red Star rating as an: