Nigel Hopkins

MARK Mader wouldn’t be the first sixth generation Barossa grapegrower to decide it was time to add winemaking to grape growing, having seen his ancient vines underpin some of the region’s most famous wines for many decades.
But in Mader’s case that decision wasn’t driven by any financial aspirations, to get a better share of the value produced by those grapes. He says he already had a longstanding and very happy relationship with Peter Lehmann Wines, now owned by the Casella group, to buy his grapes.
For many years he’d been happy to hold on to just enough grapes to make a barrel or two of wine for his family and friends, but as that demand grew he decided it was time to get a producer’s licence and things grew from there – until in 2000 he produced his first wine under the Gumpara label (“gum” for the splendid gums lining the North Para River in the north-east corner of Light Pass, and “para” the indigenous name for river).
Mader’s story now goes in two directions – both back to the start, when his Prussian refugee forebears fleeing religious persecution arrived in the Barossa in 1856, and to the present, when the grapes they planted have resulted in extraordinary wines of world class quality, including a shiraz now regarded as a close rival to Penfold’s Grange.
The Mader family settled on 25ha (60 acres) on the eastern hillsides of the Barossa Valley, beside the North Para River. Just outside the Ebenezer and Stockwell areas, it’s never managed to become a recognised sub-region, but Mader believes the exceptional quality of its fruit – long recognised by Peter Lehmann – has been seriously under-appreciated.
Initially the family, like others in the region, were mixed famers with a few vines for their own use, but over time the rich soils of red clay, pink marble and ironstone over a limestone base, with patches of terra rossa soil, gave grape growing the winning edge.
Now the whole block is planted to vines, mostly from 30 to 90 years old, with semillon planted in 1925, shiraz dating from 1956 and early 90s, grenache 1963 and cabernet sauvignon in the late 1980s on the terra rossa soil of the flats rather than the slopes.
The relationship that grew between the Mader family and Peter Lehmann Wines is important. Mark’s father James and his grandfather were responsible for most of the vine plantings, and it was James who was one of 140 growers who, during a grape glut in the late 1970s, threw in their lot with the late Peter Lehmann in has famous bid to save his community by setting up his own winery, Masterson Wines. Everything was done on a handshake, as it often still is, and the now legendary Lehmann valued his growers above everything else.
Not much surprise, then, that Mark should later find himself working at Peter Lehmann Wines earning a bit of extra cash during vintage as a cellar hand, then later developing winemaking skills under respected winemakers such as Andrew Wigan. He ended up spending 18 vintages with Lehmanns.
But by 2000 Mark Mader was ready to take a big step: “The first wine I’d made, the Victor’s Old Vine Shiraz, was quite a good wine and I thought I could improve on it. It became a quest of sorts, to produce world standard wines from the north-east Light’s Pass region.”
Central to this is Mark’s wife Mandy, a consultant viticulturist for Barossa and Eden Valley growers. Highly qualified and respected in her field, Mandy was awarded Barossa Viticulturist of the Year 2022 by the Barons of Barossa. Originally from the Adelaide Hills, she had been studying for an arts/economics degree when she met Mark, which led to her changing to viticulture and eventually participating in the management of the family heritage vineyard.
Some of the wines are named after family ancestors and local characters. There would be Frieda’s Old Vine Semillon and Conrad Cabernet Sauvignon, The Bakehouse and Mader Reserve Shiraz, all of which have scored highly in Winestate tastings. But the standout has been The Hexen Shiraz, the name given to so-called witches, these days you’d call them naturopaths or homeopaths, one of whom, Mutter Jaekel, once lived nearby.
That magical nature has certainly been built into The Hexen, which has won the highest praise from Winestate’s judges with the 2014 vintage named runner-up to Grange in a previous World’s Greatest Shiraz/Syrah Challenge. Now the 2015 vintage – only the second vintage of this wine to be released – is again a contender, with the 2016 vintage only now about to be released.
The making of The Hexen follows a very Grange-like regime, although as a single vineyard wine rather than a regional blend. Mader attributes this to former Penfolds winemaker Neville Falkenburg, who was the consultant winemaker for Hexen.
“Neville persuaded me to put a barrel aside for a really high-end wine,” Mader says. “Grapes are fermented first in the tank, then barrel-fermented in new French oak. There’s only light pressing – we look for that really sweet spot in the pressing, then it goes into new American oak for two years before bottle ageing. There’s a lot of oak involved and it needs that extra time in bottle before release.”
Only 400 bottles of The Hexen were made from that 2014 vintage, with 700 bottles the following year, with similar numbers since then – an expensive wine to make and not much of it, hence its $240 price tag.
The Maders remain a small, devoted family business with two daughters, Opal and Abi, in their early 20s waiting in the wings for when they can find time from their high-end sporting involvement to join the business. A cellar door built four years ago, full of heritage character, has given them a more public face, although still by appointment.
And Mark and Mandy, and their family, continue that “quest of sorts” to produce world class wines of the finest quality from their heritage vineyard. They’re certainly getting there.