Columnist RICHARD CALVER samples the wines of the Willson family’s Bremerton winery in Langhorne Creek, SA.

Langhorne Creek in South Australia is part of the Bremer River flood plain and, like the Canberra District, is known as a cool-climate growing region.

Ron Molloy, who was presenting a tasting of Bremerton Wines at the Hyatt, said the winery was family owned and run, with the winemaking team headed by family winemaker Rebecca Willson. Halliday rates it as a five-star winery. 

The patrons enjoyed first a 2024 Special Release Fiano. This Southern Italian white wine variety is growing in popularity, but it’s not my drink of choice. I’m not keen on the almost waxy texture a number of fianos deliver. This one displayed a nose that was reminiscent of a mild cheese and was quite flinty on taste, with pith and minerality in the finish that you might expect from, say, a vermentino. 

The second wine was also a 2024, labelled Racy Rose’. This was a rose’ where the winemaker had used cabernet sauvignon, tempranillo and shiraz varieties to blend a dry style of rose’. 

Given its light colour, the grapes were pressed for this effect and it was fresh but quite acidic. It was a summer wine and, as usual, it was another cold Canberra evening we were escaping where more full-bodied winter wines were called for.

Speaking of which, there were three reds on offer. The 2022 Coulthard Cabernet Sauvignon was the first presented. 

Cabernet is synonymous with Langhorne Creek. This wine has aromas of cassis and currants. The winemaker has achieved a good balance between tannin, which can make some young cabernets too “grippy”, and dark fruit. That balance enables it to be a pleasant drink now, but it seems a wine that will only improve with bottle age. I enjoyed this wine. 

The first shiraz was the 2022 Selkirk. The colour is deep red, the bouquet is of plum with a hint of vanilla and white pepper. The vanilla presaged the depth and added complexity that time on oak brought to this wine. The predominant flavour on taste is of blackberry. I reckon that it will be a very good wine after at least two more years in bottle.

The final wine of the late afternoon was the 2021 Old Adam Shiraz. No one at this stage laughed when I proposed that when Adam ate the fruit and fell from grace it was a case of cores and defect. 

This shiraz is one where, Ron explained, the winemaker chooses the best parcels of estate-grown shiraz. This wine again reflected a good balance between tannin and fruit with a coffee grind nose and rich fruit intensity on taste. This is one I’d put away for three to five years. 

“Ageing is just another word for living.”  –Cindy Joseph