Up to a dozen years ago, Barossa wines were considered a novelty; today, critics such as Robert M. Parker, Jr., rank some of them among the finest in the world. These wines are ageworthy, pleasure-giving, food-friendly, diverse in style, complex and, best of all, soft: You can pour and enjoy them when they're very young. And they're a relative bargain. Even expensive Barossa wines are still reasonably affordable compared with wines of equal quality from elsewhere in the world.

History The Barossa was settled in the mid-1800s by Lutheran Germans, very frugal people who planted their farms to be self-sustaining. It is still a land of small family farmers—big business has not taken over. As recently as 25 years ago, when old-vine Shiraz, Grenache and Mataro(Mouvedre) weren't chic, the government paid growers to destroy them.

Climate And Soil The Barossa's warm climate is perfect for producing opulent wines. And its soil is some of the planet's oldest, with ancient red mineral deposits streaking the vineyards and adding unique flavor to the grapes.

Shiraz And Beyond Shiraz, Australia's greatest grape, can have flavors of boysenberry cobbler, chocolate, mocha, blueberries and cream and hints of spice and black pepper. But the Barossa has other great grapes too: Sémillon, Grenache, Mataro and—perhaps the biggest sleeper—Cabernet Sauvignon.

Torbreck is one of the new-style cult 'boutique' wineries in the Barossa. It was founded by Dave Powell in 1994, with the first wines made in 1995. Powell's philosophy has been to secure grapes from small parcels of old-vine Barossa vineyards, and then to make hand-crafted wines in a traditional style that reflect their Barossa origins. Yields are invariably low, and the resulting wines are deeply impressive

Dave Powell is a big bloke. I've heard that he can lift a barrique above his head with ease. I get the impression that he doesn't suffer fools easily – he takes plain speaking to the level of bluntness, and it can actually be quite fun to ask his opinion of someone you know he's none too impressed with. You don't want to get on the wrong side of him, for sure. But let's focus on his wines. Quite simply, they are fantastic. For me Torbreck is the prototype 'New Barossa' winery. The only shame is the prices: they are expensive. Prices have long since left the plane of reality, driven upwards by the collectable nature of these wines and the fact that demand has massively outstripped supply. I liked them very much, though I'm not sure they're all good value for money. Rather perversely, I preferred the Juveniles and the Steading to some of its more expensive siblings, and at about RM250 a pop this one is definitely still worth a try. The Runrig is well past RM1, 000.00 a pop. I have to concede, though, after tasting them that these wines are good enough to justify both the hype and the prices.

Dave started making his own wines in 1994. He studied economics and entered the wine business by accident after working the vintage at Yalumba in 1981. Subsequently he travelled widely and worked lots of vintages, before starting work at Rockford in 1992. He became aware of various old neglected vineyards in the Barossa, and he started buying them up and making wine from them and in 1997 the first Torbreck wines were released, the 1995 Runrig and 1996 Steading. Powell hasn't looked back since.

Some notes on the names. Torbreck is the name of the forest in Scotland where Dave Powell worked as a woodcutter. Steading is the name of a pub in Edinburgh; also the term given to outbuildings on a farm. Struie is a mountain he worked on in Scotland; Factor is the guy who runs the woodcutting operation. Descendant is descended from Runrig; it uses the old barrels from Runrig and the vines were cuttings from the Runrig vines. And Runrig? In one of the pubs Powell drunk in on Struie the band Runrig played, and then the pub burnt down when they reopened. It's also the name of the land distribution system that evolved into the crofting system.   

Torbreck is primarily a red wine producer, but around 10% of the production is white. We began a tasting recently at the Vintry with the 2004 Woodcutter's Semilon, which is lovely and fresh with appealing fruity character. It's quite rounded, with some richness. Dave Powell explains, 'In the Barossa, the biggest problem is that people have tried to make everything here. My idea is to work with varieties that have not only been here a long time but also which are suited to the climate'. The only non-Rhône variety they work with is the Semillon used in this wine: the Madeira clone is used which handles the heat well. Some old vine components are barrel fermented; the younger grapes are fermented in stainless steel.