Torbreck Vintners, The Laird, 2021
Torbreck Vintners, The Laird, 2021
- 75cl
- 15.5%
- Red Still
- Shiraz
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Optimal drinking window: 2026 - 2056
Est. delivery in early Spring, 2027
Originally owned by the legendary Malcolm Seppelt, fruit for Torbreck's The Laird comes from the Gnadenfrei vineyard, nestled on a gentle south facing slope on the eastern side of a ridge separating the Seppeltsfield and Marananga appellations, in the Barossa Valley.
Planted in 1958, the 5 acres of Shiraz is embedded in very dark, heavy clay loam over red friable clay. The vineyard is meticulously hand tended, un-irrigated, traditionally farmed and pruned. The resulting small, concentrated berries produced consistently on the property make it an extraordinary, inky, blackhole-like Shiraz that is one of Barossa's most sought-after wines.
What the critics say:
"The 2021 The Laird is from the Laird vineyard, planted in 1958. This is dark, dense and brooding in its styling, showcasing a depth that the Forebear expresses differently. The latter vineyard (the Hillside vineyard) is almost a hundred years older than the Laird, and I find this to be a curious and interesting fact that bears little on the quality of the wine but heavily impacts/defines the character. The first time the fruit was sourced was in 2004, but it was 2005 that the first Laird was produced; the vineyard was finally purchased in full by Torbreck in 2014. The vineyard is split in its soil types, with black and red clay east to west, and the two sections are picked at different times, as the fruit ripens differently. So, to the wine. Aromatically the wine leads with cocoa and cigar, armchair leather and old books. The palate follows this same smoking-room character and veritably stains the palate in flavor and length. This is a wine of enormous impact, one that lingers and stays in the mouth for ages after the wine has gone. The wine is moody and late-night in its vibe. 15.5% alcohol, sealed under natural cork. Drink 2026-2056."
"The Laird is a primordial leviathan in 2021 with immense ripeness, power and musculature. It is also amazingly showy and imposing, and it rushes, before you have a chance to be prepared, whereupon it assaults every inch of your olfactory circuit. Clouds of haze, comets and shooting stars fizz and arc across your taste buds and tectonic plates of flavour collide. The fruit density and sweetness are part seismic and part absurd, and while it is almost too big for my tastes, there are legions of fans who will go gaga for this wine."
The Laird is sourced from a single block in the northern Barossa, where the soils are ancient ironstone and quartz-rich sandy loam over deep clay subsoils. These free-draining, nutrient-poor soils naturally stress the vines, reducing berry size and concentrating flavour to an extraordinary degree. The northern Barossa's continental climate — hot, dry summers and cool nights — preserves phenolic ripeness without sacrificing structure, and the vines' age means their deep root systems access subsoil moisture that younger plantings cannot reach, giving the wine a mineral complexity that goes well beyond simple fruit concentration.
The Barossa Valley GI covers the floor of the Barossa Valley in South Australia, one of Australia's oldest and most celebrated wine regions. It sits apart from the adjacent Eden Valley both geographically and stylistically — lower in altitude, warmer, and better known for the monumental old-vine Shiraz that put Australian red wine on the world map. There are no strict rules governing yields or winemaking in the way that European appellations impose, but the Barossa's Old Vine Charter — which classifies vines aged 35 years and above through to Ancestor vines at 125 years and older — gives a meaningful framework for understanding the premium attached to fruit like that in The Laird.
The 2021 vintage in Barossa played out as a tale of two halves, starting with a soggy winter and spring that had growers fretting about disease pressure, then pivoting to a remarkably benign harvest period. La Niña delivered the rain early, filling dams and giving vines the deep drink they needed, but by February the weather gods had seemingly sobered up and delivered one of the most stress-free picking seasons in recent memory. Cool nights, warm days, and crucially, no late heat spikes meant fruit could hang longer without the usual panic about sugar accumulation racing ahead of flavour development.
What emerged from the cellars shows a vintage with both power and poise, the extended hang time delivering Shiraz with real depth of flavour rather than just alcoholic grunt, whilst Grenache and old-vine Mourvèdre show a spiciness that feels vibrant rather than brooding. The Cabernets have a lovely freshness that we rarely see in this warm valley, and even the Rieslings from Eden Valley's cooler sites have more tension than usual. Most 2021s are drinking beautifully now, offering immediate pleasure whilst having the structure to cellar until 2035 for the serious stuff.
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