News

February 06, 2021

Newsletter 9th January 2021

Premium Barossa Wines

Our favourite wines from our favourite Barossa Valley wineries

Happy new year!


This week we have added two new wine collections to help your selection and save you time.

The first one is the 2020 Barossa Valley Wine Maker of the Year - Stu Bourne collection.

The Barossa Winemaker of the Year award recognises a Barossa winemaker who utilises premium Barossa grapes and who has made or is making a significant contribution to the industry in the areas of sustainability, research, quality, innovation or technical excellence.



Stu Bourne from Soulgrowers was awarded Barossa Winemaker of the Year in 2020. I have known Stu for about 15-years since we were both members of a small wine tasting group together. He is very passionate about educating people about wine and promoting the Barossa Valley. Now the Senior Winemaker at Soul Growers, his experience includes being the Senior Winemaker at Chateau Tanunda, Winemaker/Operations Manager at Barossa Valley Estate and Winemaker at Crabtree Watervale Wines in the Clare Valley and Blue Pyrenees Estate in Victoria.

Stu joins four other winemakers who contribute wines to Barossa Reserve who have won this prestigious winemaking award: Tim Smith (2019), Craig Stansborough (2014) and Rolf Binder and Christa Deans (2005).

We classify our recommended wines into three different categories do give you an idea of their value.

Super Premium  - these are some of the best wines in the Barossa Valley. Save these wines for special occasions with your partner or to share with a small group of your best friends at dinner parties.
Premium - Award-winning premium wines to impress your friends and have them asking where you got them.
Great Value - Great wines that you can enjoy at home with dinner or with friends and relatives on the weekend where they will be the "pick of the wines"

The 2020 Barossa Valley Wine Maker of the Year - Stu Bourne collection includes one single vineyard "Super-Premium" Shiraz, two "Premium" selection wines and four "Great Value" Wines from Soul Growers.

Our second collection is exclusively white wines. The Barossa Valley is better known for red wines, particularly Shiraz and GSM blends but the cooler sub-region of Eden Valley is also well known for fantastic Riesling.

The Barossa White Wines collection has three superb examples Eden Valley Rieslings along with three lesser-known varieties: Pinot Blanc, Fiano and Viognier. Each of these wines is from our "Great Value" wines category and we love all of them.

Don't forget to consider joining our Barossa Reserve Club. Each quarter, club members receive six bottles of personally selected, outstanding wines with:
  • Free delivery
  • Quarterly price of $350
  • A discount of at least 10% off the cellar door price
  • One wine from the "super-premium" collection, two wines from the "premium" collection and four from the "great value" collection with a combined cellar door price value of at least $385
  • Automatic processing of your order
  • Access to special offers reserved for club members
  • Options to buy rare museum stock you won't be able to buy anywhere else.
  • Loyalty rewards that add up every time you place an order with 1 point per $1.00 spent. Points can be redeemed against future orders and specials (1 point = $0.01 purchasing power)
With the Chinese tariffs on Australian Wine and the hospitality sector de-stocking wines due to COVID, many Australian family-owned wineries are doing it tough. Even if they are not selling to China, the large corporate wine companies will have excess stock that will flood the Australian market. Please help out small and family-owned wineries by favouring them over imported wine and bulk produced wine.

Finally, don't forget the Australian designed and manufactured Scorpro Explorer Box.



Designed and made in Adelaide, the Scorpro Explorer Box keeps two Riedel Ouverture magnum wine glasses safe when off-roading, camping, picnicking or going to the beach. You no longer have to spoil the taste of your great Barossa Reserve wines by drinking from a plastic cup. Enjoy the great outdoors with a touch of glass.
 

How are great wines made


For each winery that we have selected we delve into how the wine is made from the nature of the soil, vineyard management and winemaking process ... Read More by selecting the Winery

Michael & Adele Williams

We have created this website because we believe there are plenty of wine lovers who are prepared to pay for premium handcrafted wines... Read More
December 13, 2020

Purple Hands

Purple Hands was started in 2006 by good mates, wine maker Craig Stansborough and passionate wine enthusiast and engineer Mark Slade. 

Anyone who has made red wine will know what a pair of purple stained hands looks like and that was the inspiration for the brandname. 

The Purple Hands home vineyard, Stansborough, is situated in the Southern Barossa just north west of Williamstown. Literally, a stones throw from the Whispering Wall reservoir.

The 32 acre vineyard is planted on perfect Shiraz dirt, friable red clay over limestone. The vineyard plantings include Shiraz, Montepulciano and Aglianico.

The southern end of the valley is recognised as the “cooler” end of the valley, with slightly lower temperatures and longer ripening periods to develop flavours.

The Zerk Grenache Vineyard was planted by the Zerk family in 1961 and located 1 Km east of the township of Lyndoch. The Grenache site is around 280 m above sea level with a northerly aspect. Soil consists of deep red clay with bands of ironstone. The vineyard is own rooted, clone is unknown. The vines are goblet hand pruned to 32 buds. The mid rows are cultivated to natural sward. No irrigation is used.

The third source of fruit is the ‘Woodlands’ vineyard also located just outside of Lyndoch. Circa 1880 PF Zimmermann planted 468 Cabernet Sauvignon vines on his family property Woodlands. This vineyard is believed to be one of the oldest bearing plantings of this variety in Australia and possibly the world. To respect this pioneering vigneron and the vines he planted, Purple Hands have applied minimal winemaking input endeavouring to craft a wine that reflects the history and site.

The Purple Hands mission is to produce fruit driven wines with elegance and texture that reflect the vineyards from which they are sourced.

The aim is to make balanced wines so they can be consumed as young wines, but will also become interesting and enjoyable older wines.

In 2013, Purple Hands Wines first entered the James Halliday Wine Companion and was awarded a 5 star rating and included in the Top 10 New 5 Star Wineries.

2015 saw Purple Hands Wines transition into a red 5 star winery. This is awarded to wineries regularly producing wines of exemplary quality and have at least two wines rated at 95 points or above, plus have had a five-star rating for the previous two years.

This 5 Star rating places Purple Hands Wine in the top 10% of wineries listed on Wine Companion.

James Halliday published a review of Purple Hands in 2011 and stated:

“Both the Shiraz and Grenache have a common theme of elegance, and a voice distinctly different to that of mainstream Barossa.”
– James Halliday Weekend Australian Magazine Oct 2011

In 2019, their 5 star rating continues and James wrote:

“This is a partnership between Craig Stansborough, who provides the winemaking know-how and an 14ha vineyard of shiraz (northwest of Williamstown in a cooler corner of the southern Barossa) and Mark Slade, who provides the passion. Don’t ask me how this works – I don’t know – but I do know they are producing outstanding single vineyard wines (the grenache is contract-grown) of quite remarkable elegance".

The Barossa Wine Show is arguably the most prestigious regional wine show in Australia and in 2019, Purple Hands Wines were amongst the biggest winemaking names from this world-famous region when the awards for the 43 Barossa Wine Show were announced.

The results from the 2019 Barossa Wine Show for Purple Hands Wines include:

The Cooperages 1912 Trophy, Most Successful Exhibitor – Small Producer
The JBG Architects Trophy for Class 18 – Best Red Wine – Other Varietals : 2018 After Five Wine Co. Montepulciano
The Barossa Cellar Trophy – The Chairman’s Selection : 2018 After Five Wine Co. Serata
Gold Medal – 2018 After Five Wine Co. Shiraz
Gold Medal – 2017 After Five Wine Co. Serata
Gold Medal – 2018 After Five Wine Co. Serata
Gold Medal – 2018 Colours of the South Rosso
Gold Medal – 2018 Planta Circa Ancestor Vine Grenache
Gold Medal – 2018 Purple Hands Old Vine Barossa Valley Grenache
Gold Medal – 2018 After Five Wine Co. Aglianico
Gold Medal – 2018 After Five Wine Co. Montepulciano
Silver Medal – 2018 Purple Hands Barossa Valley Mataro-Grenache-Shiraz

In 2014, Craig Stansborough was awarded the 2014 Barossa winemaker of the year by the Barons of the Barossa.