One of the first hysterical media releases to hit my desk this year is one from Chateau Tanunda dated January 8, whose ‘media contact’ Stuart Barrie cannot contain his excitement at having a new Grand Barossa Shiraz to release and a new winemaker as well. However, Stuart has chosen to combine the two incidents. Under the heading ‘GRAND BAROSSA Enters new phase’, he exhorts: ‘Having gained its international reputation and success in Switzerland and Germany over the last eight years, the GRAND BAROSSA brand has entered a new phase. With Tim Smith having taken over the Winemaking earlier this year (2008 at my estimation) the latest release (from 2005) has been eagerly awaited.’ In other words, Tim Smith has been able to exert his presumably not inconsiderable talents over a wine made three years before he arrived at the company. And when quite frankly, he probably didn’t even know the wine existed! But that doesn’t prevent Tim from being quoted as saying: ‘I had a huge reputation to live up to with GRAND BAROSSA but I reckon this is the best blend we’ve managed to put together of this wine.’ Apparently, I and other wine writers were not expected to pick up on this. Which possibly tells you a lot about the level of regard in which we critics are held by the industry!
