Jacob's Creek celebrates its regional roots

Jacob’s Creek will be moving to regional appellation on its Reserve range of wines from July 2011 across its key international markets.

The new Jacob’s Creek Reserve offering will focus on three key wine regions being Barossa, Coonawarra and Adelaide Hills, and the new wines will reflect the distinct personality of each region through the chosen grape variety.

In recent decades Australia has established a good reputation as a producer of quality wine built largely on the reliability achieved through careful blending from multiple regions across south eastern Australia. However, increasingly, certain regions within Australia are being noted for their success with certain grape varieties and styles.

Bernard Hickin, Chief Winemaker for Jacob’s Creek, explains: “It is widely recognised that certain grape varieties are better suited to particular regions.”
“The Barossa, with its warm dry days and cool nights, is both ideal for rich Shiraz and from its upper ranges, delicate Riesling. In addition Coonawarra’s unique terrain and maritime climate grows great Cabernet Sauvignon, and the cool climate of the Adelaide Hills with its high altitude hills and valleys provides a variety of micro-climates that are perfect for producing crisp elegant contemporary styles of Chardonnay.”

“For many years we have created regional varietal wines under our premium heritage banner which has yielded great success. We are pleased to extend this regionality into our Reserve range.”

The Jacob’s Creek Reserve range was launched in 2000 and then, as now, fruit for the Reserve wines is identified by the winemakers while still in the vineyard and set aside at harvest for its high quality and true varietal expression. For the new regional Reserve wines, the same careful fruit selection will occur, but will be restricted to the named region which is best suited for growing that variety. In addition the winemakers will select fruit that also exhibits distinct regional characters.

“The resultant wines strongly reflect the personality of the region and the variety from which it comes,” says Bernard Hickin.

The new range of Reserve wines available in the New Zealand market from early July include:

Jacob’s Creek Reserve Barossa Shiraz 2008 (RRP $20.99)
Jacob’s Creek Reserve Barossa Riesling 2010 (RRP $20.99)
Jacob’s Creek Reserve Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 (RRP $20.99)
Jacob’s Creek Reserve Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2009 (RRP $20.99)
Jacob’s Creek Reserve Barossa Merlot 2010 (RRP $20.99) will be available from early October.
Enjoy Jacob’s Creek responsibly.