Torbreck Vintners

TORBRECK WAS CREATED WITH THE AIM OF BUILDING ONE OF THE FINEST WINE ESTATES IN THE WORLD. THE VISION IS TO PAY HOMAGE TO THE VINEYARDS OF THE BAROSSA VALLEY, HOME TO SOME OF THE OLDEST VINES ON THE PLANET. Torbreck Vintners was founded by David Powell in 1994 when he began to discover and clean up a few sections of dry-grown old vines in the Barossa Valley. It was named after a forest in Scotland where he worked as a lumberjack in his earlier years. He managed to raise enough money to share-farm a few vineyards, a practice that involves paying the owner a percentage of the market rate for his grapes in return for totally managing the vineyard. This share- farming principle, along with company-owned vineyards acquired over the life of the business, has enabled Torbreck to use fruit from the very best vineyards in the Barossa Valley. Thanks to its freedom from phylloxera, the valley is home to some of the most precious old vines in the world. The Torbreck endeavour is based around the classic Rhone varietals of Shiraz, Grenache and Mataro, from mostly old vines scattered throughout the microclimates of the Barossa. Whilst Torbreck specialises in making red wines, there is Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne planted on our Descendant vineyard which we blend into white wine. The first wine was the 1995 Runrig crushed from just three tonnes of Shiraz and Viognier grapes. Torbreck’s long term vision of 100% estate produced and bottled wine reached completion in 2008 when a new winery and administration facility was opened on land acquired from a next door neighbour. This facility enables our grapes to be handpicked, vinified into wine using the best available equipment, matured in temperature controlled cellars and then bottled ‘on the estate’ using a state of the art bottling line, before being shipped to many of the world’s best restaurants and fine wine retailers.