Kind Words

Eldorado Road Comrade Nero d'Avola 2013

Posted August 2014

Review by Mike Bennie

Eldorado Road is increasingly interesting with its colourful range of wines – this a Nero d'Avola styled as an easy drinking style but with firmness of fine, dusty tannins that suggests a wine of slightly higher class. Bright in fruit and spice, touch of savouriness, glossy testure. Go forth! 15%. Rated: 92 Points.

Australian Wine Companion 2015

James Halliday

Eldorado Road Perseverance Old Vine Shiraz 2012

Deep, almost opaque colour; it is fullbodied, yet not extractive of tannic; French oak has aided its cause, but there is a wonderful display of plum and blackberry fruit running the length of the palate, comfortable resting on a pillow of ripe tannins.

• Rated: 96 Points
• Alcohol: 14.5%
• Price: $60
• Closure: Screwcap
• Drink: 2032

Eldorado Road Quasimodo Shiraz Durif Nero d'Avola 2012

A particularly distinguished blend that derives its intesity and drive from the fruit flavours, not from the alcohol; matured in used French oak, it's quite possible to use the terms 'elegance' and 'purity', expressions normally a long way away from a blend of this kind from Northeast Victoria.

• Rated: 96 Points
• Alcohol: 13.5%
• Price: $28
• Closure: Screwcap
• Drink: 2032

 

Eldorado Road Quasimodo Shiraz Durif Nero d'Avola 2012

Posted on 17 April 2014.

Campbell Mattinson

Eldorado is closer in distance to Beechworth than it is to Glenrowan. This wine is grown on the home estate vineyard with input from the Old Vine Shiraz vineyard at Glenrowan and Durif from a mature vineyard in the Rutherglen area. A north-east Victorian red blend, you could call it.This is a balanced, bright wine with more than a touch of class. Texture, flavour, length and interest are all covered beautifully. It tastes of jubey blueberry/blackberry with earth, coal and spice notes providing extra lift. Tannin is ultra fine-grained and integrated. Spotlessly clean but simultaneously charming.

• Rated : 93 Points
• Alcohol : 13.5%
• Price : $28
• Closure : Screwcap
• Drink : 2014 - 2021

Eldorado Road Perseverance Old Vine Shiraz 2012

Posted on 16 April 2014.

Campbell Mattinson

Grown on a restored old vineyard in the Glenrowan district. Fermented naturally. Open fermenters. 24 days on skins. 15 percent whole bunches. Basket pressed into French oak puncheons.

The first release was excellent but this tops it. Sweet fruit, grainy, grunty, earthen character, thick ropes of tannin. Has cellarability written all over it and yet its complexity is easy to find in this its youth. Blackberry, sweet raspberry, smoky oak, dried twiggy herbs. Terrific sinewy length. Presence.

• Rated : 96 Points
• Alcohol : 14.5%
• Price : $60
• Closure : Screwcap
• Drink : 2017 – 2030

Eldorado Road Comrade Nero d'Avola 2013

Posted on 15 April 2014.

Gary Walsh

Very deep strong colour here! Dusty spice cupboard, perfume, black and blue fruits, bit of black jellybean. Full bodied, big chewy wine with bold furry tannin, suggestion of orange liqueur, and tangy acidity running into the finish – which is pretty long - and a bit chocolaty. It’s a Nero to have with steak rather than pasta, but it’s pretty good.

• Rated : 90 Points
• Alcohol : 15%
• Price : $35
• Closure : Screwcap
• Drink : 2015 - 2020+

Posted June 2014 Australian Gourmet Traveller - Top Drops of the Month

Max Allen

Something Different

2013 Eldorado Road Nero d'Avola, North East Victoria, $35.

From a young vineyard planted at Eldorado, near Beechworth, this bold red wine needs coaxing to reveal its true beauty; some truly lovely spicy perfume and ripe red fruits emerged after a swirl in a big glass.

Quasimodo Shiraz Durif Nero d'Avola 2012

Posted June 2014

Review by Mike Bennie

What a blend! The hunchback of Rutherglen and Glenrowan with Shiraz, Durif and Nero d'Avola. Fantastic to drink, spicy, sleek, crisp in texture and bright fruit flavours going long to a building pucker. Excellent and interesting. 13.5%.

94 Points.

A WINE FOR... A Chilly Night

Eldorado Road Comrade Nero d'Avola 2013

Posted May 17 2014

Review by Ralph Kyte-Powell

There is something in the DNA of Australians that sends them running for strong, dark red wine when the temperature falls. Slowbraised meats, crackling fires, cosy conversations and a glass or two keep the chill at bay. From Victoria's north east, Eldorado Road's Comrade is that sort of wine. Made from Sicilian grape Nero d'Avola, its sunburnt aromoas of spices, dark fruits, cocoa and orange peel introduce a big, warm, rich palate. Grippy tannins support it, and a lingering, mocha-like aftertaste reinforces its cold weather cred. $34 - $36.

TOP DROP...with David Sutherland

Sicilian Style great match...

Posted June 13 2014

WINE-lovers delight in unearthing new and little-known producers to surprise their friends.
Victoria alone now boasts more than 850 wineries so there is plenty potential to seek out different localities or new producers which could be the next "big thing".
Paul Dahlenburg and Lauretta Schultz's Eldorado Road brand was established in 2010 after they built their family home on the ideal vine-growing plot between Wangaratta and Beechworth. Durif and Nero d'Avola are planted on their tiny estate vineyard – Durif of course is familiar to us all but Nero d'Avola?
Arguably Sicily's most significance red grape variety, Paul and Lauretta mapped their conditions with the varietal requirements of the grape and found a good match, reinforced by the opinions of other experts such as Sicily's Alessio Planeta. This is a red wine operation, with a significant Shiraz wine at its core.
Paul, with his daytime job of manager/winemaker at Baileys of Glenrowan, knew of a local vineyard which was in decline and on the brink of extinction.
This 1890s dry-drown patch of vines was leased, and slowly nursed back to health to eek out minute amounts of fruit to produce what must become an iconic shiraz from the North East.
But it is probably the Nero d'Avola grape that is creating the most interest and the current release features the first of their estate-grown single variety Neros.
The problem with the grape is that it is highly vigorous, with its associated problems of vegetative green characters in the wine.
The Nero vineyard was planted on low-vigour rootstock with a restrictive viticultural program to produce the best possible fruit.
The 2013 Nero d'Avola ($35) was de-stemmed, cold soaked prior to open vat fermentation with a short post-ferment period on skins to ensure soft tannins.
Matured in one-year-old and seasoned French puncheons for complexity and background support, the wine is all violets and plums with a well-balanced tannin structure.
Partner with Italian sausages, Sicilian of course!

Eldorado Road 'Quasimodo' Shiraz Durif Nero d'Avola, 2012, $28.

Eldorado Nero and Shiraz, a touch of de-classified old-vine Glenrowan Shiraz, and Durif from a mature Rutherglen vineyard go together to make this blend. It's fresh and bright, with ripe plum and cherry fruit flavours and plenty of structure – Paul's winemaking is quite Euro – dry, ripe fruit but no overextraction or jamminess, just good structure and oh so food friendly.
in a word: smart.

Eldorado Road 'Presévérance' Old Vine Shiraz, 2012, $60.

This is the third release of wine, made from the 1890s Dulcies Old Vineyard leased to Paul Dahlenburg and Lauretta Schultz. I don't know who Dulcie was but she's partly responsible for some good gear! Open vat fermentation for 24 days, the wine was matured in new and seasonal French puncheons. You can see the old lady's core of fruitiness fighting to express herself outside of the tannic and acid structure.
in a word: brooding.

 

Five Stars for Eldorado Road in James Halliday Australian Wine Companion 2014 Edition

James Halliday

Winemaker Paul Dahlenburg (nicknamed Bear), Loretta Schulz (Laurie) and their children have leased a 2ha block of shiraz planted in the 1890s with rootlings supplied from France (doubtless grafted) in the wake of phylloxera's devastation of the Glenrowan and Rutherglen plantings… See more in PDF

Eldorado Road named by James Halliday in Australian Wine Companion 2014 Edition as "Top Ten New Winery"

James Halliday

This wine is a tribute to the perseverance of these remarkable old, dry-grown vines. Having made the voyage by sea as rootlings from France to Glenrowan in the late 1800s, they reflect a unique piece of Australian wine history. See more in PDF

"Six Nations Wine Challenge 2013” Runner Up Double Gold Eldorado Road 2010 Durif named second best in the New World (Class 14 ‘Other Red Varieties’)

The ER Onyx Durif 2010 received an invitation by Houn Hooke to enter into the prestigious “Six Nations Wine Challenge” including Argentina, Australia, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa & USA and received Runner Up Double Gold in its respective Class 14 ‘Other Red Varieties’ category, which is great recognition amongst some highly regarded wines. See More in PDF

2012 Eldorado Road Onyx Durif, Rutherglen

Posted June/July 2013 Gourmet Traveller Wine - Wines to Cellar

Max Allen

Eldorado Road is a new label from an old hand in winemaking in Glenrowan. The main focus of this new project is an ancient (1890s), dry-grown local shiraz vineyard, While the wine from that site - the 2010 Perseverance (A$60) - is elegant, earthy and very, very good, the wine that strikes me as particularly cellar worthy is this big, ballsy durif. Right now it coats the tongue in dark chocolate richness and sooty tannin, give it a few years and it'll reveal more supple, cured-meat, satisfying complexity.

Eldorado Road Old Vine Shiraz 2010

Posted on 06 February 2013.

Campbell Mattinson

At the heart of the matter is a vineyard. It’s been growing out there on a skinny shoulder of the Warby Ranges – near Glenrowan, in north-east Victoria – since rootlings were transported direct from France and planted there way back in 1890. It’s one of the originals, a key piece of Australian vineyard history, yet almost no one has heard of it. If it wasn’t for Paul Dahlunberg, it would now be three-quarts dead.

Dahlenburg has been tending a section of this vineyard – there’s too much to do to concentrate on it all – since 2009. He has isolated the vines he knows are the oldest, and is hell bent on slowly resurrecting them, and treating their produce with appropriate care. The Trebbiano goes straight in with the shiraz, not that there’s much of it but because “it’s part of the vineyard’s story”. The endeavour is no easy task, nor a fast one.

For all his work Dahlenburg and his four kids (now adults) have retrieved one tonne of grapes from the 2010 vintage, and roughly two tonnes from the 2012 vintage. If things hold this 2013 vintage, he’ll be back to one tonne. This is heritage winegrowing and making, but most of all it’s pure heart. It’s about a man and his family and their efforts to both keep history alive, and create it anew.

“I kept thinking what a tragedy it would be if we just left these vines to die, 10 percent, 20 percent each year. When we first started working in here we had to wait for spring to see which of the vines were dead, and which were still breathing.”

It spends 20 days on skins. Sees all French oak – all two barrels of it. Open fermented and then basket pressed. It’s a wine of perfume and softness and inherent wizened strength. The oak is a touch showy now, in its infancy, but it’ll fold in soon enough, and it’s beautiful oak anyway. Spiced fruits. Bright but minerally. Balanced. I took one sip and thought, Thank Christ, it’s a beauty. What a gem of an addition to Australian wine. It’s a wine of learning, listening, loving. There’s bugger all of it; buy some.

• Rated : 95 Points
• Alcohol : 13%
• Price : $60
• Closure : Screwcap
• Drink : 2015 - 2024

Eldorado Road Onyx Durif 2010

Posted on 07 February 2013.

Durif grown at Rutherglen. Sees French oak only.

This is a beauty. A dense, grainy, modern take on a traditional regional style. Excellent fragrance, polish, guts and length. Ironstone, blood plums, smoky/musky oak. Thick chains of grunty tannin. Handsome wine. Flavour floods through the finish. Stories and ratings aside, this is my most preferred of the initial Eldorado Road offerings.

• Rated : 94 Points
• Alcohol : 14.5%
• Price : $35
• Closure : Screwcap
• Drink : 2015 – 2025

Eldorado Road Quasimodo Shiraz Durif Nero D’Avola 2010

Posted on 07 February 2013.

All French oak. A polished but characterful red. Flavours of charcoal, raisin, cedar and ironstone. Medium-weight but ripe and generous. Feels modern, balanced, soft on the tongue. Modest alcohol allows the flavours to run free. It’s an excellent north-east Victorian red blend.

• Rated : 93 Points
• Alcohol : 13.5%
• Price : $28
• Closure : Screwcap
• Drink : 2013 - 2018

Eldorado Road Onyx Durif 2010

Posted on April 2nd 2013

Ralph Kyte-Powell

Uncorked Epicure

This brawny red is not for wimps. Impenetrable colour, and a nose of plum pud, berry jam and spice introduce a full-bodied wine and emphatic tannic structure. Wow.

• Food ideas: Oxtail braised in red wine; rare rump steak.Rated : 93 Points
• Alcohol : 14.5%
• Price : $35
• Closure : Screwcap
• Drink : 2 - 20 years.

Quasimodo Shiraz Durif Nero d'Avola 2010

Posted May 2013

Review by Mike Bennie

An unlikely trio makes for a satisfying, complex flavour profile, bursting forth medium-bodied with red fruit, spice and briary aromas and delivering a lip smacking, gently sweet wine to taste. Bright acidity trims the wine, chalky tannins guide. Dig this, 94 points. 13.5%