‘DRC of Barossa’ launched in HK

Dave Powell, the former winemaker and co-founder of Australia’s cult wine, Torbreck, is back with a vengeance, launching his own wine, Powell & Son, calling it “the DRC of Barossa”, albeit one with a healthy dash of influence from the northern Rhône and the “unsung hero” of Australian wine, Eden Valley.

Dave Powell in Hong Kong this week, officially launching Powell & Son, a new wine venture between him and his eldest son Callum. The wines are available at Kerry Wines.

Chatting to dbHK prior to the start of the wine’s official launch in Hong Kong with Kerry Wines, the chain-smoking, larger-than-life winemaker had just landed in the city straight from the 2017 vintage, his fingernails and hands still stained with grape juice and skins.

“I am in the middle of vintage so my hands were all black and yesterday I had to get acid to wash them out, but still can’t get rid of some,” Powell explained, speaking after almost four years since his very public ousting from Torbreck in 2013, a winery founded by him in 1994.

Accusing current owner Pete Knight of “stealing” his brainchild in “an underhanded way” and another American wine critic of having the “palate of a goat”, Powell is somewhat more at peace at the moment.

“I am grateful now,” he said. “I am so happy to be out of it and doing what I like – growing grapes and making wines. And doing it in such a hands-on way. I was actually in the fermentor digging up grapes,” he adds gleefully, before really rubbing it in: “I took their [Torbreck’s] best vineyards and best staff, so that’s okay”.

Indeed, the winemaker said 70% of the grapes used for Powell & Son are from former Torbreck vineyards after some growers parted ways with Torbreck to join his team. “A lot of the growers don’t want to stay but I don’t have enough money…We just pick specific vineyards, the ones we want to work with. But more importantly vineyards that we can buy, and we intend to buy all them eventually,” explained Powell.

“We don’t want to create another Torbreck. We want the wines to have a bit more finesse and polish,” he stated when asked about the similarities between Torbreck and Powell & Son, a joint venture between the veteran and his 23-year-old son Callum, who has been studying oenology and honed his skills in the Rhône working for Jean Louis Chave.

In terms of wine style, he admitted there are similarities with his old estate but his Rhône Valley-trained son Callum actually has more of an influence on the winery’s style direction. For starters, the winery has made a northern Rhône-style white, blending Marsanne and Roussanne and has placed more focus on Eden Valley to make single-vineyard wines.

“With Torbreck, most of the wines are from Barossa valley and perhaps 10% Eden Valley. With Powell Shiraz, it’s 50% Eden, and we have a single-vineyard Eden Valley Shiraz and a blend of Eden Valley and Barossa Shiraz. And of course the Rieslings are from Eden Valley. So we work more with Eden Valley than I did in the past with Torbreck,” he explained.

Speaking of the shift toward Eden Valley, Powell senior explained it was, “partly because of my son because, obviously, he has been in the northern Rhône. So we talked about Eden Valley wines that probably are a bit more powerful and Barossa Valley having elegance, finesse and lift, so more brightness. So he said, ‘dad why don’t we make more Eden Valley and blend the best of both worlds?’

“Eden Valley is an unsung hero and Henschke obviously has Hill of Grace, the most famous one from there, but there aren’t a lot of single vineyard Eden Valley wines, so that’s why we made a conscious decision to do more single vineyard wines as much as Barossa Valley.”

Altogether, the winery makes six single-vineyard wines, four are already available in the market and two of which will be launched later this year, Powell revealed. The current four single-vineyard wines include: two Eden Valley Shiraz (Steinert Flaxman’s Valley Shiraz and Loechel Eden Valley Shiraz), one Barossa Shiraz (Kraehe Maranga Shiraz) and one Grenache wine (Brennecker Seppeltsfield Grenache). In addition to the single vineyard wines, the estate produces another six regional wines.

“I quite unashamedly wanted to create the DRC of Barossa,” said Powell. “Six single-vineyard wines, low yields, highly concentrated and very specific terroir driven wines. I love DRC wines but they are so expensive, unless you are rich you can’t drink them. Luckily I’ve got rich friends. I still drink them but I am not buying them myself,” the straight-talking vintner commented.

Powell & Son’s inaugural vintage, the 2014, yielded just 3,500 cases across the range. In 2015, 5,500 cases were made and 7,500 cases were bottled last year. The 2017 vintage was a generous year, the winery’s production is up by roughly 20% to 10,000 cases, thanks to old and healthy vines, with the oldest being 125 years old, the vintner said.

Dwelling back on his past life with Torbreck, the opinionated veteran concluded: “This is just taking all these years of experiences and taking it to another level”. But funnily enough, he said one of the groups offering to buy Torbreck approached him to see if he is willing to rejoin the winery for a million dollars a year. Asked if he was tempted, he said: “I am not even slightly interested. It would be like getting back with one of my ex-wives.”

READ MORE: ‘I was a lamb to the slaughter,’ says Powell