Alex's Notes & Musings on Ben Glaetzer & The Barossa
Without doubt one of Australia's top-tier producers, Ben Glaetzer hails from one of Australia’s most influential winemaking families, having arrived in the Barossa Valley from Germany in the late 19th century.
The Barossa is around an hour's drive northeast of Adelaide and boasts some of the world's oldest continuously producing vineyards, many planted in the 1840's to 1860's and there are still vines producing fruit that date back to these original plantings!
Having founded Glaetzer Wines in 1995, Ben has been been instrumental in shaping the Barossa's modern identity and wine styles. Not that long ago the norm was for wines that were highly extracted, rather clumsy overly-alcoholic monsters that would have an alcohol burn on the back of the throat and lacked freshness and finesse.
Now though, thanks to winemakers like Ben, the approach is to reign in the power and retain freshness and refinement via various contemporary methods in the vineyard and winery, with modern winemaking equipment and temperature control.
Ben's Amon-Ra certainly has power but it is finely-crafted and finessed, with quite exceptional ageing potential.
Winemaking & Ethos - modern precision to make the very best of ancient vine material
Ben ferments in small, open vats which allow for a more gentle extraction and polished, integrated, velvety tannins.
There is no expense spared when it comes to his choice of oak barrels, he only selects those from high-quality French and American coopers that add structure and frame the fruit character rather than dominating it.
In particular, he stresses that he does not want his Shiraz to smell and taste like oak in a way some do, for him it's all about showing off Barossa's fruit character on both nose and palate.
His number one objective is balance, meaning the wine's richness must be matched by structure, freshness, and length, to achieve drinkability over sheer power. Opulent and full-flavoured, yes, yet controlled and stylish, with his signature polish. Very on-trend in the wine world and the direction of travel for many winemakers.
The winemaking breakdown for the Amon-Ra:
- Fermented in 1 and 2 tonne open fermenters, hand plunged 3 times daily.
- Matured for 16 months in 100% new oak hogshead barrels (95% French and 5%
American). - Matured on lees (dead yeast cells) to maintain fruit profile and to boost seamless texture and animation.
- Bottled unfiltered to ensure minimal intervention with the wine’s natural characteristics.
Sustainability
While not marketed or certified as an organic or biodynamic estate, the Glaetzer philosophy is grounded in long‑term stewardship of the Barossa's old vines, which inherently demands sustainable practice:
- Minimal irrigation, relying on deep root systems. Irrigation is a massive issue in Australia and the over-use of water for mass production has caused significant environmental damage, especially in the Murray Basin, but I won't go into that here (if interested, do google it....though other search engines are available).
- Low chemical inputs, with a focus on soil health and vine balance: given they are a producer of high-quality wines, they need to do this to ensure continued quality and vine health.
- Meticulous hand harvesting to protect fragile old‑vine fruit. They harvest at night. Why? Grapes come in at 10-15°C instead of 25-40°C, which preserves aromatics, ensures better acid retention (freshness), and slows oxidation.
Growers like Ben are obsessed with their old vines, some of the oldest on the planet. They are the jewels in Barossa's crown and are treated as such.
They are well aware how lucky they are to work with such incredible fruit - plus the vines were worked on by their ancestors. You will often hear them say how proud and humbled they are to work with vines planted by the hands of their great-grandparents. It has massive resonance and meaning. So the overarching goal is to preserve the Barossa’s vine heritage for the wines that they make, and for future generations.
Terroir - the environment that dictates viticultural and winemaking methods, and shapes the wine
The vineyards are on the valley floor and while the soils vary, they mainly consist of deep sandy loams, the famous red-brown earths, clays, and ironstone-rich outcrops.
Summers are hot and dry, sometimes dangerously hot with spells around 45°C or more, although nights are cool, the combination of which means fruit with high phenolic ripeness but also the preservation of acidity for freshness. Albeit with the frequently elevated temperatures of the last decade or more, preserving the latter has increasingly become an issue.
Given the region's very low rainfall, the old vines with their deep root systems are a huge asset, allied to the highly concentrated fruit they produce.
However, these old (50 years plus) and very old vines (up to 130 years) that produce Amon-Ra are very low-yielding so it only makes sense to produce high-quality wine with a corresponding price tag.
Producing high quality wine is no walk in the park though: it takes focus and sacrifice to an extreme, a lot of time, a lot of patience, and many years of trial and error. Speak to any winemaker and they will tell you that they made many errors before getting it right!
The yields for the Amon-Ra sit at around 2 tonnes per hectare which is tiny. For the sake of comparison, yields can push 30+ tonnes per hectare in Australian vineyards producing fruit for cheap branded wines!
All of the above factors produce fruit with extraordinary depth, intensity, tannin quality, and lifted aromatics - the foundation of a wine like Amon-Ra.
The Winemaker's Tasting Note
Colour: Deep purple upon release, but will evolve to a rich, dark garnet red over time in bottle.
Aroma: Dark cherry and blackberry notes are offset by hints of black pepper and a well-stocked spice rack.
Palate: Rich and enveloping and balanced on a razor’s edge between power and finesse. Multiple dark fruit notes saturate the palate, enhanced with graceful spice and herb notes.
Peak Drinking: A wine that will develop beautifully with long term cellaring through to 2045.