Armagh Shiraz - 50 years of the Armagh Vineyard in Clare Valley

Anniversaries always are a time of reflection – and in the case of the Armagh Shiraz, they tell the story not just of one vineyard, but of an entire region and a pioneering family. “When our grandfather Jim finished his oenology degree in 1947,” Sam Barry says, “he became Australia’s 17^th qualified winemaker – and Clare Valley’s first. Clare Valley at that stage had five wineries, and they never had had a qualified winemaker there,” he explains. Times were different then: “It was wineries who applied to grads rather than vice versa. The Clare co-op applied to Roseworthy and Grandpa took over that role. The co-op had about 35 growers, and he transitioned these growers away from Gordo and Palomino towards Riesling, Malbec, Shiraz and Cabernet – in fact away from fortified wines which were then the mainstay of the Australian wine industry towards still table wines. He also created a nursery at the co-op.” Jim Barry then gave cuttings of the new varieties to the growers. “These were the foundation of the Clare Valley wine industry,” Sam Barry says.