This article appeared originally on The Wine Front

Posted on 02 June 2025 by Kasia Sobiesiak

I had the pleasure of spending a day with the Kaesler team earlier in May.

It was dry in the Barossa, dams were crying out for water. The landscape was painted in sepia and ochre. The vines were holding on to the leaves on their unpruned canes sticking above the trellis in what looked like a crazy, rustic wire tangle. Turning-the-colour leaves still help the vines store for winter in this dry climate, as I learn later from the guardian of the vines.

Nigel van der Zande, the viticulturist and general manager at Kaesler, tells the stories of the land as we drive around the region. We talk about regenerative farming, challenges and learnings. We talk about Eutypa and how it’s managed. We talk about in-house compost making and row, and undervine management. Planting trees and encouraging native species to live in symbiosis with the vines. Nigel is a very passionate viticulturist; he’s put in a lot of work at Yarra Yering the year it was acquired (2009) by Ed Peter and Reid Bosward. Owned by the same people, Kaesler is very much a separate business where Nigel puts his heart and soul into. I could listen to his tales of the land for hours.

After a short stop by the 12 rows of 132-year-young Old Bastard vines, we visit the winery. I chat with Tim Dolan, who took over as the chief winemaker in September 2022, and Stephen Dew, who has been making wine at Kaesler since 2002; he’s an integral, spiritual part of this place. We talk about the use of oak, the style, and the expressions of old vines, of course.

I taste the wines at the cellar door with the Old Bastard wall-print looking over the room. The new Icon release is here and looking very smart.

Old Vine Shiraz 2022
“Old Vines” planted in the 1960s, so not as old as the “Alte Reben”. Perhaps it sounds older in German.

Richness and lifted aromas define this wine. It’s built with red fruit on the outside and a concentrated line of black fruit on the inside. The perfume holds the tension of cherry blossom, hazelnut oak and rose petal potpourri. The flavour is luscious but carries the same lift of red fruit as the aroma. The tannins are tense and spiked with iodine, that kind of earthy, salty nuance, balancing between dried fruit and dried blood. There’s something very pretty but a bit rusty about this wine, giving ethereal and umami at the same time and this combination is hard to resist. 96 points

Alte Reben Shiraz 2021
Old vines, planted in 1899.

The oak spice and the peppery pinch of Shiraz come together gracefully in this wine. The notes of vanilla and toast go hand in hand with ripe black fruit. This wine has a mahogany, rich, luxurious perfume. Roasted coffee and warm woody undertones, exotic spice, smoked meat and light char to tannin, steaming cherry pie with some dusting of cinnamon, leather and just a hint of boot polish. It’s dense like freshly brewed coffee and textural like very high quality, silky cocoa powder. You could sink into its cosy perfume and plush fabric of flavour for hours. 95 points

WOMS Shiraz Cabernet 2022
Weapon of Mass Seduction. Indeed. It does feel like this blend is built for wide appeal and instant gratification. Nothing wrong with that. Tickling the senses, blackberry tart with vanilla custard and a dusting of sweet spice, ripe and vibrant core of fruit, a mix of blackberry and black currant. Notes of dates and caramel whiffs mingle with a strawberry type of finish, loads of black chocolate tannins, and ground coffee mouth perfume. Needs a bit of time, perhaps, but it’ll seduce you as is right now too. 94 points

Age of Light Cabernet Sauvignon 2022
Planted in 2017, “Kids Cabernet” block, right behind the winery, not far from the Old Bastard. 120 dozen.

Elegance in liquid form. It’s the Cabernet’s DNA and quality oak marriage perfection. The minty-creamy filling in dark chocolate, notes of new leather, cassis perfume, cherry wood smoke, raspberry and boysenberry in the mix, along with hints of vanilla in the back palate. Complete composition, all very well measured and elegant, fine-boned, smooth, with long ropes of fine ebony tannins. Flavour is kept in line with the acidity and coolness of fruit, and it feels smooth and soft yet firm and strongly built underneath. Finishing effortlessly already, but will age very well too. 96 points

Old Bastard Shiraz 2021
Planted in 1893, 12 rows.

Very old vines and a wine that is still very young. However, with time in the glass, it starts to shed its perfume gradually and gives detail one by one, layer by layer, showing the complexity that it carries. It’s not all quite merged yet, but time should do its job. First come the blue fruit, vanilla bean and braised meat. It has minty spice, liquorice, star anise, and tarragon family of aromas. The texture is this thick fabric of fruit that rolls out in a velvety manner in the mid-palate and tenses up on the sides. It keeps a long line of flavour, and sends iodine-bloody electric shock waves through your taste buds. Spice and perfumed cherry wood smoke flesh out in the back palate. Tannins are shaped in long slabs of graphite—shiny, smooth and fine to feel. It’s very much a moving and living wine that has a long life ahead. Funnily, the old bastard on the label doesn’t seem to age like the fine wine it has in the bottle. 97 points