Winery & Vintage Info
The Laird (formerly Gnadenfrei) Vineyard was first planted in 1958 on a southwest facing slope in the tiny hamlet of Marananga in the Barossa Valley. Torbreck’s first harvest of Shiraz from this highly coveted plot came in 2005.
With a combination of red and black clays over an ironstone base intermingled with gravel and quartz, the red and black soils produce two distinctly different wines that complement each other when blended. The Eastern block of red clay offers up power and intensity with robust black fruit and tannins due to higher sunlight hours and later harvesting. The setting sun shades the Western side of this single vineyard and the black cracking clays offer a more fragrant, elegant wine complemented by spice and earthy notes.
Only eight vintages of The Laird have been produced since the inaugural 2005 vintage. Over this time, the wine has become a favourite for wine collectors the world over, and has been fortunate to received the highest accolades accolades from the international trade and media. This includes receiving a perfect 100 points three times from Robert Parker's 'The Wine Advocate' for the 2005, 2008 and 2012 vintages.
