Collection: TURKEY FLAT

The establishment date of Turkey Flat is given as 1990 but it might equally have been 1870 (or thereabouts), when the Schulz family purchased the Turkey Flat Vineyard; or 1847, when the vineyard was first planted – to the very old shiraz that still grows there today and the 8ha of equally old grenache. Plantings now comprise shiraz (24ha), grenache (10.5ha), cabernet sauvignon (5.9ha), mourvèdre (3.7ha) and smaller plantings of marsanne, viognier and dolcetto. The business is run by sole proprietor Christie Schulz. -JAMES HALLIDAY

Turkey Flat is more than just a vineyard and home of some of the best Barossa wines, it is a family business that forms a vital part of the region’s rich cultural history and heritage.

It was here, on the banks of Tanunda Creek where bush turkeys once roamed, that pioneer Silesian settler Johann Friedrich August Fiedler planted the first shiraz vines in 1847. His vines flourished and the land – Section One, in the Hundred of Moorooroo – was bought in 1865 by Gottlieb Ernst Schulz, a successful butcher who established a thriving retail business among the vines.

Butchering developed into dairying, but the vineyards were always kept, until the current generation made the transition from grape growing to winemaking. They transformed the historic bluestone butchers shop into the cellar door and heart of their Turkey Flat wine business, and made sure that the vines that Fiedler planted so long ago, now gnarled and twisted, are still a vital part of the process. And with good reason, for it is the intense, concentrated fruit from these ancient vines that set Turkey Flat wines apart and have made them sought after the world over.