“Love is an emotion that can be felt for an eternity. Gold is just material.”

Barr-Eden Estate is a unique property consisting of 130 acres of natural splendour. Nested on Mengler’s Hill, the property rises in elevation from 1525 to 1788 feet (465m to 545 m) above sea level and sits across Eden Valley and the Barossa Valley. The Pohlner family settled in Eden Valley in 1858 and established themselves on the property in 1862 when they finished building the original homestead. The property remained in their family until 1997. Barr-Eden is unique in the sense it sits amongst the highest vineyards in altitude in Australia and across two world-acclaimed wine regions, the Barossa Valley and Eden Valley, hence BARR-EDEN.

The base geology is age Cambrian (490 to 550 million years old). Kanmantoo Group, metamorphosed schists, greywackes, gneisses, siltstone, and shale. The soil is shallow, skeletal grey sand loam mixed with both ironstone and quartz. The climate is continental but the altitude provides good rainfall above the Barossa average ( 700-900mm). The ripening process is slow and happens later than in the Barossa Valley, allowing perfect maturity, both physiologic and phenolic. Barr-Eden Estate takes a sustainable approach and minimises the use of machinery to avoid soil compaction.

Each Love over Gold batch is destemmed by hand, berry by berry, and fermented slowly over weeks, only ever being foot stomped in open fermenters. The wine is basket pressed with only the free runs kept as the pressings are being discarded. Love over Gold is made with a deft touch. The wine is magical, its core of fruit caresses the palate and displays great persistence. Love Over Gold’s tertiary aromas and minerality create complexity and drive into an extremely long finish. Love Over Gold possesses a core of ripe and defined fruit with tannins that are coating and very long, it will age effortlessly over 20 to 25 years. The 2016 Love Over Gold was carefully hand-picked on the 23 of March 2016, It was then diligently hand destemmed with only the very best berries selected. Ten percent whole bunch was included in the ferment with only perfect berries left on the rachis.

The destemmed fruit was transferred into a small open topped fermenter. Gentle pigeage was performed twice daily with the natural ferment progressing at a cool 24 degrees. Once ferment was complete and after 24 days, the free run was drained to a 2-year-old extra tight-grained puncheon.