Maverick Wines

In this newsletter, we feature Maverick Wines.

Maverick Wines exemplifies what Barossa Reserve aims to achieve in finding premium quality boutique Barossa wines that outperform in quality and price compared with the larger well-known brands.

Maverick wines is a 5-star Halliday winery whose wines can be found in 3-star Michelin restaurants in Paris and in Michelin star restaurants and 5-star hotels around the world.

Owner and winemaker, Ron Brown, established Maverick Wines in 2004 and acquired some of the best vineyards in the Barossa and Eden Valleys. Ron was born in Scotland but inherited his passion for viticulture and winemaking from his Swiss mother. After several successful vineyard projects in Switzerland and France, he came to Australia in 1997 and completed a winemaking degree at Charles sturt University.

Maverick wines have 75 acres of some of the best vineyards in the Barossa and Eden Valleys whose fruit was previously used by some of the top names and wines of the Australian wine industry. Half of the vineyards are more than 100-years old and many of them are much older including Ahrens Creek Vineyard which has 1840s Semillon, 1840s Grenache, and 1870s Shiraz. The Barossa Ridge Vineyard has 1860s Riesling.

The vineyards are biodynamically farmed and the Trial Hill and Barossa Ridge Vineyards are certified Biodynamic and Organic. They make their own organic compost to replace the nutrients consumed by the growing vines and plant green cover crops in all the vineyards to eliminate the need for weed control and to improve soil health. They also run sheep through the vineyards to keep weeds down and provide additional natural manure. Ron assures me that because of the biodynamic methods, it is impossible to get a hangover from drinking his wines!

The underlying philosophy of Maverick Wines is to produce terroir-driven wines, farmed in sync with nature using mainly biodynamic methods to produce very low-yield fruit with intense and pure fruit flavours that represent the age and the deep root systems of the old vines and the terroir in which those vines grow. Ron subscribes to the European belief that 90% of the winemaking is the work of Mother Nature in the vineyard and the winemaking process should be “light-touch”.

Maverick's boutique winery is situated on Light Pass Road, in the heart of Vine Vale. The winery is small but state of the art, with the very latest equipment and technology but hand-tailored to reflect their careful crafting of individual wines produced in small lots in accordance with time-honoured European traditions. 

Their oak is 100% French, mainly from Francois Freres and Seguin Moreau, but they never use more than 50% new oak in even their top wines. Their philosophy is that the oak should complement rather than dominate the wine.

Maverick wines are fruit-driven, but complex, elegant, the perfect accompaniment with food, and above all outstanding value. From the start, Maverick has been a 5-star winery in the James Halliday Australian Wine Companion, and in the 2021 edition had 5 wines receiving scores of 95 points and above, and three wines receiving the coveted "Best of the Best Award". In 2022, Ron was the only Barossa viticulturist/winemaker nominated for the 2022 James Halliday Wine Companion Barossa Viticulturist of the Year.

With Ron’s guidance, we have put together a great selection of Maverick wines for you to appreciate at slightly below cellar door prices delivered free. Click on the link here.
•    Maverick 2019 Barossa Shiraz
•    Maverick 2020 GSM
•    Maverick 2021 Twins Barrel Select Shiraz
•    Maverick 2006 Twins Barrel Select GSM
•    Maverick 2021 Trial Hill Eden Valley Riesling

Michael Williams
Michael Williams

Author

Michael has lived in the Barossa Valley for 10-years. He was a co-founder of the Barossa based wine appreciation group. Having had such long associations with the Barossa Valley, Michael is inevitably called upon by his friends and business colleagues to help them buy good wines or select the wine whenever eating out. As founder of Barossa Reserve, Michael brings a virtual Wine Region tour and Cellar Door experience to lovers of outstanding premium Barossa wines to those who cant get there themselves.