San Francisco Bay Area Wine-Winemaker Tasting: Kaesler Vineyards

THE JUG SHOP PRESENTS:
An Evening with Reid Bosward of Kaesler Vineyards
Thursday, October 9th, 2008
 
“Three companies set the style for 80% of Australian wine. It is a danger for the industry to have so few careful styles. Australia needs the variety that there is in France. We need the individuality in smaller wineries. We need to offer something different.” --Reid Bosward, Kaesler Vineyards.

On Thursday, October 9th, we are very pleased to present Reid Bosward, co-owner and chief winemaker for Barossa's Kaesler Vineyards. Reid is another of the many colorful characters born of the Barossa or, as in Reid's case, a transplant from New South Wales who fell in love with the land, eventually parking his boots. A former "flying winemaker" with experience in Bordeaux, South Africa and Moldovia, a chance meeting in Bordeaux in 1994 brought him in contact with Edouard and Julie Peter, a Swiss couple who were friends of Reid's wife Bindy. Talk turned to wineries and vineyards and the Peters indicated they would be keen to establish their own place--maybe in Australia, maybe elsewhere.

Reid later returned home to Australia and found his way to the Barossa where he made wine for Cellarmasters, a custom crush and winemaking facility where he learned quite a lot about the vineyards and the grapes being grown there. When the Peters came out for a visit in 1998, the discussion about purchasing a vineyard resumed. Reid's newfound experience in the Barossa gave him confidence that this was the place to do it. And after a bit of poking around in California and New Zealand, it was settled--they would purchase a property in the Barossa together. And thus they arrived at Kaesler, with a focus on providing a difference and a determination to produce excellent wines first and turning a profit later.

With catchy, whimsical names such as "The Bogan" (a down under Dukes of Hazzard type; see also Holden Torana), "WOMS" (Weapons of Mass Seduction) and "Old Bastard" (self-explanatory), one may be tempted to think Kaesler's wines are built on marketing first, wine second. But don't let it fool you. With plantings dating back to 1893 when the Kaesler family first settled in the Barossa, the vineyard boasts some of the gnarliest, dry-grown, century-old vines on the planet. These original plantings still make up the backbone of their current production more than 100 years later.

But perhaps even more miraculous than these old vines, Kaesler is one of the few wineries that both Chuck, our Aussie expert, and myself agree on. This is no small thing, as anyone who has had the dubious fortune to sell wine to us knows. The odds of Chuck and I both putting our stamp of approval on a wine are about the same as Hillary and Sarah co-chairing a bake-off. Which is why I enthusiastically nominated myself to write this invitation to our customers--Kaesler makes wines I can't help but like. Are the wines big? Yes. High in alcohol? Sure. But there is something within them that is so enticing and ephemeral that they transcend the "bigness".

Maybe Campbell Mattinson, Aussie writer of The WineFront Monthly , says it best when describing the 2005 Kaesler Old Bastard Shiraz: "It’s a monster. It’s made from vines that were planted in 1893, and the grapes from the 2005 season were ripened to produce a wine that declares itself at 16% alcohol. At that, it’s going to taste warm and finish even warmer, and it does. But on the way there it seduces its big red heart out...The mid palate is all sweet, black, tonguestaining berried fruit, elements of toast, sweet beefstock, red earth and tar packing it to the gills with flavour. It smells good, and tastes good, though it does knock you around – a couple of glasses and I was both begging for mercy, and enjoying myself immensely..."

Weapons of mass seduction indeed.

Please join us promptly at 6:30 pm on Thursday as Reid will treat our guests to a talk about his experience, the Barossa, and the wines he produces as he leads us through a tasting of the Kaesler portfolio. As some of these wines are rarely tasted, space is limited and RSVP is required.  This is a change from our drop-in tasting format so that our guests all have a chance to benefit from the information Reid has to impart. (PS: if you can't make it at 6:30 but would still like to RSVP, we certainly won't turn you away!) -Paige Granback, E-Commerce Manager

Kaesler Vineyard Winemaker Seminar & Tasting
Thursday, October 9th, 6:30pm
At The Jug Shop Wine Bar
$10 per person

Please RSVP by phone at 415.885.2922 or by email to info@jugshop.com.

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