Ebenezer is the home of the Hoffmann family in the Northern Barossa Valley. This is the second vintage that Callum has been able to source a small section of the Hoffmann family’s Dallwitz Old plantings in Ebenezer. In addition to that, he’s been able to maintain his allocation of grapes from the Hoffmann’s Dimchurch Home Old vineyard, which is their original property from 1857 (vines planted in 1888). Callum’s family has worked with the Hoffmanns for nearly three decades so Callum calls the opportunity to work with this site a “treasured sentiment.” Callum likes to use the comparison of two of Hermitage’s best vineyards to describe the differences between his Flaxman and Ebenezer Syrahs. He likens the Flaxman wine to Les Bessards, which has the bones (think savory, aromatic, lean tannins), and the Ebenezer wine to Le Meal, which has the flesh (think darker fruits, rounder, more gliding tannins). The 2023 vintage was a significantly cool, prolonged harvest. Many of Callum’s sites were picked two weeks later than usual. This long and cool season resulted in considerable structural backbones of these wines, while still maintaining vibrant perfumes and flavor profiles.

The grapes were all harvested by hand on various picking dates and brought back to the cellar to ferment spontaneously under semi-carbonic maceration. After 3-4 weeks depending on the lot, the wine was pressed off the skins and racked to old puncheons and barriques, where it remained for 12-14 months of aging. At this point the lots were blended, and the wine went to the bottling line with just touch of sulfur. No fining.