Powell & Son
Neldner Road Loechel Shiraz
Eden Valley
2016

The producer

Powell & Son crafts wines that truly reflect the character of Barossa and Eden Valleys. Founded by Callum and Dave Powell (formerly of Torbreck Vintners), Powell & Son combines traditional, minimalist winemaking techniques with an unwavering dedication to terroir. Inspired by France’s Rhône Valley, their reds are rooted in classic Rhône varietals like Shiraz, Grenache, and Mataro, while their whites include Roussanne, Marsanne, and Eden Valley Riesling.

Believing that great wine begins in the vineyard, Callum and Dave tend to their vines personally throughout Winter and Spring, before handpicking the fruit in Autumn. Using old concrete ferment vats and basket pressing, they create distinctive, expressive wines that highlight the unique qualities of Barossa’s most treasured vineyards.

The wine

The Powell & Son Neldner Road Loechel Shiraz is a distinguished wine sourced from a single vineyard at the southern tip of the Eden Valley township. This vineyard, planted over half a century ago by the Loechel family, is situated at an elevation of 400 meters on a steep easterly aspect with granitic loam soils. These conditions provide high drainage and low yields, resulting in concentrated fruit that contributes to the wine's rich and complex character.

In the vineyard, Powell & Son employ organic and sustainable practices, reflecting a holistic approach to viticulture. The vinification process is highly oxidative, involving open concrete fermenters, pumping over, and basket pressing. After fermentation, the wines are held in a reductive state to retain their character. Aging occurs in French oak, utilizing a combination of large oak foudres, barriques, and puncheons, with no fining or filtration prior to bottling. 

The resulting wine showcases generous dark ripe fruits such as blackberry, cherry liqueur, and cassis, supported by dark chocolate, mocha tones, and subtle herbs and spice. The palate reveals pronounced dark fruits underscored by smoky, savory, and meaty notes, including olives and charcuterie, with a subtle reductive funk. Medium to full-bodied, it maintains a mouth-staining inkiness, providing a long and satisfying finish with a persistent orange-rind-like acid backbone.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.