INTRODUCING OUR FIRST TEN YEAR OLD MAGDALENA TAWNY FORTIFIED

It’s been a decade in the making and we are elated to now be able to release to you all, our very first 10 year old Brockenchack Tawny Fortified, affectionately namedThe Magdalena.

Named after my mother Magdalena Martha, this Tawny is a sentimental addition to our collection because when my mother was alive she had a ‘butcher’ of port at 5:00pm every day, without fail.

The ‘butcher’ was a reference to the smallest beer glass available – just 200mL. Apparently it was dubbed a ‘butcher’ in South Australian pubs (a ‘ladies waist’ in other parts of the country), back in the day when the abattoir butchers came in with only a short amount of time on their lunch breaks, but wanted to squeeze in a visit to the pub and a sneaky ale at lunch time. It is said that these glasses were shaped in such a way that they wouldn’t slip out of their greasy hands. This smaller serving sizes became their go-to glass and began to be reserved for use by butchers only, in many a pub. It's pure coincidence that this ties in so well to ourCellar Door’sbutcher shop history.

Mother Magdalena always had clean hands though… but this glass size paired perfectly for her evening tipple, and she had a fondness for Tawny Port.

Tawny is the new Port…. because we can’t call it Port anymore. Back around 2010Australian producers were banned from using the names Champagne, Port and Sherry on our wine labelsbecause such names are all based on geographic locations, which are protected under the EU labellingregime.And fair enough too. We wouldn’t want overseas producers labelling their wines as Barossa reds now would we… So it just becomes a re-education process. We all now know that bubbles produced outside of the Champagne region are now simply called Sparkling Wine – and this is no different.

‘Port’ is now a drink defined by its originin the northern provinces of Portugal, near Porto and so can only be used when referring to wines fromPortugal’s Duoro Valley. And so, the rise of Tawny began!

Dubbed Australia’s favourite Fortified wine,Tawnygets its name from its brownish colour, which is attributed to the wine being aged for a long time in porous wooden barrels. With a Tawny, the ageing process has already been done for you, so upon release you can enjoy it straight away and typically, further cellaring won’t change or improve it… in contrast to aVintaged Fortifiedwhich is aged for only two years in oak barrels before being bottled, retaining freshness and enabling further cellaring maturity over decades.

Grapes grown for Tawnies thrive in Australia’s warmer regions, including the Barossa (where our very own Brockenchack is located), Rutherglen, McLaren Vale and the Riverland. We’re lucky enough to have micro-climates within our vineyard which allow us to produce superb warm region varietals such as this Tawny and ourGrenache, as well as our stand out cool climate wines such as ourRieslingandPinot Noir.

I grew up on a farm with my two loving, wonderful parents. As you may already be aware, our William Frederick Shiraz was named after my father. He was the softer one. Our German Lutheran roots were very prominent in my mother Lena. She was a strong, hardworking woman, who enjoyed life. She was kind, but tough. After I moved away from home I had to call her every Sunday night, routinely at 5:00pm, just as she was sitting down to her butcher of Tawny. One time I forgot to make this call and she was less than impressed. When I suggested she perhaps could have called me on that occasion instead, it didn’t go down too well and she didn’t speak to me for two weeks! Needless to say, the next week’s call was rather one-sided. I made sure to call every Sunday at five after that, regardless of where I was, or what I was doing.

Magdalena Martha was a lady of many talents. She could sew, she worked around the farm, milked our cows, and boy, she could cook like nobody’s business. She cooked simple but beautiful things and was always making something - and it was always delicious! Cakes, biscuits, pikelets, sago and jellies… this list goes on. This is where I got my sweet tooth from!

The grape varieties used to make a Tawny differ from winery to winery, butShirazandGrenache, along with Mataro and Touriga can all feature. Our Magdalena is made from our oldest single vineyard Shiraz vines near ourCellar Doorin Eden Valley, and is a softer-styled fortified to be enjoyed after dinner.

We left these particular grapes on the vines a month longer than our other Shiraz grapes. We intentionally picked these later so they could continue to ripen on the vine. When we first looked at this Tawny five years ago, we were a bit nervous because we thought that it wasn’t any good. So we left it alone and scratched our heads a little, wondering what would become of it. But our winemaker Shawn Kalleske was confident, and at the nine and a half year mark, when we revisited it, Marilyn and I couldn’t believe how much it had changed and improved in that extra space of time.

With time in the glass, our Magdalena Tawny opens right up to bring flavours of preserved fruits, Christmas pudding, and natural sweetness, melting into hints of nuttiness and gentle wood spices.

This exciting new release has only been bottled in small batches, so we suggest you get in quickly and order yours now. We’ve bottled them in small 375mL bottles to keep it an affordable option for everyone. Grab a few and tuck them away for your dad or granddad this Christmas.

Enjoy ourMagdalena Tawny Fortifiedwith matured cheese like an aged cheddar, dark chocolate desserts,tiramisu, or toffee or caramel based desserts likemaple pecan pie!