Origin : South Australia, Barossa Valley
Style:    Full to medium bodied dry red
Grape :  Grenache Shiraz Mourvèdre 

 Australia's vineyards were planted early in the late 1800s by English and later, German settlers which means it has some of the oldest plantings of Grenache and Shiraz in the world even older than the French which were devasted by the phylloxera virus.      Throughout most of the 20th century the grapes were foritifed, however it was with the introduction of stainless steel and refrigeration that paved the way for non-fortified red wine production. 

In the 1980s a small group of Barossa producers Charles Melton, the Rockford's Callaghans and Bob McLean at St Hallet who got together and saved Shiraz from virtual extinction.     Cabernet Sauvignon was in hot demand and you couldn't give away the old shiraz grapes growing on the small blocks in the Barossa.    The older a vine gets, the lower its yield, and many of these old gnarly vineyards just weren't commercially viable until this trio came along and changed the system of payment.  Henceforth they would pay the growers for the acreage not for their yields, thus history was made and wines made from the venerable old vines are now some of our most iconic wine labels.  

Charles Melton's "Nine Popes" is a play on the French region Chateauneuf du Pape although in translation he readily admits he got it a bit wrong!   But what he didn't get wrong was the blend:  another innovation as it was one of the first GSMs!      With  20 + vintages of Nine Popes behind him, Charlie's flagship just keeps getting better with each successive vintage.  

"Sensual red wine with an intensity aligned with elegance. The flavours are layered and textured with a long and dry palate. Will repay you after few years of cellaring."  The Australian Financial Review Magazine, Philip Rich:  While a new generation of Barossa producers is getting all the accolades for its southern Rhone-style blends, Charlie Melton, who first produced a Nine Popes Grenache/shiraz blend in 1988, has gone about refining and improving what remains one of the best examples in the country. Made from old-vine Barossa Shiraz (50%), Grenache(46%) and Mataro (4%) that was matured in mainly older French barriques, this deeply coloured and beautifully balanced wine has spice, earth, liquorice and red and black fruit aromas, the flavours are sumptuous and rich, yet not at all overdone.

visit the website:  http://www.charlesmeltonwines.com.au/