FOCUS – that is the key word at Eisenstone. Founder and winemaker, Stephen Cook, believes that focus is the foundation stone of superior quality winemaking. At a time when most Australian wineries are producing wine from quite a number of different grape varieties and different regions, Cook focuses on making the very best possible wine from one single region and one single variety, that is Barossa and Shiraz. Rather than spread his energies across several different varieties, he is totally focused on this world renowned combination.
Being based in the Barossa Valley, the selection of Shiraz as the grape to focus on was logical as well as practical. The Barossa is Australia’s best known wine region, and its mega star is Shiraz (Syrah). Never having been affected by phylloxera as France and most of Europe was, the Barossa has many of the world’s oldest Shiraz vines, some of which date back to before phylloxera forced Europe to completely re-plant all of their vineyards. Added to this is the fact that Shiraz is Australia’s flagship wine variety, producing many of the country’s best wines. So the combination of these two was the logical choice for Stephen Cook, ex-banker and corporate winemaker, to make when establishing his own boutique winery.
The winery name, Eisenstone, is the combination of the German word for iron “Eisen” and the English word “stone”. This name was chosen to celebrate the ironstone soils in which their Shiraz vines grow, thus at the same time celebrating the English and German heritage and traditions of the Barossa.
EISENSTONE WINES article by NIGEL HOPKINS