Our wine-writing colleague Nick Ryan called out an enduring mystery in his selection of best wines this month when he remarked on the virtues of Lake Breeze’s $22 Bernoota Shiraz Cabernet from Langhorne Creek.

“I don’t know how they do it,” Ryan wrote in the Drinks Issue of The Weekend Australian Magazine.

The consistent quality of the Bernoota, at just a touch over $20 a bottle, has made this classic Aussie blend one of  The Australian Wine Club’s most popular wines over many years.

So it’s about time we do ask: How do they do it?

“We don’t pay ourselves too much,” jokes Lake Breeze managing director Roger Follett, who runs the family business with his two brothers, winemaker Greg and vineyard manager Tim.

“We do try to keep our overheads low: Greg makes wine from about 400 tonnes of grapes with only one cellar hand helping and it’s only Tim and one other guy looking after 230 acres (90ha) of vineyards. We’re all very hands-on and that does keep our overheads under control.”

Lake Breeze’s Bernoota, from the exceptional 2021 vintage, is one of three high-class reds – all named among Ryan’s top 40 red wines of the year – bundled together in the wine club’s deal of the week, available in a six-pack or by the dozen.

Along with the Bernoota, you’ll find the 95-point Vanguardist Oeno Grenache, crafted from McLaren Vale fruit by a brilliant winemaker, and a single-vineyard cabernet sauvignon from the home of Clare Valley’s Jim Barry that would find a merry spot on anyone’s Christmas table.

We’ve included Ryan’s notes for the Vanguardist grenache and Jim Barry cabernet below, but first back to Langhorne Creek and the story of Lake Breeze.

The Follett family has had grape growing in its blood since love drew Roger’s great-grandfather, Arthur Follett, to the region in the 1890s to marry Alice Fairweather, the daughter of an early settler, William Hill.

The couple planted the first grapes on the property and the family continued to produce and sell the fruit from these old vines until 1987 when Roger’s parents, Ken and Marlene, insisted they hold back some cabernet sauvignon grapes to create their own wine and label.

Ken and Marlene had overseen an expansion of Lake Breeze’s vineyards in the 1960s and ’70s, with sizeable tracts of cabernet and shiraz planted. The cabernet’s quality was regarded so highly that Penfolds used the fruit in prestigious wines such as Bin 707 and Bin 389.

Nowadays Lake Breeze selects the best fruit from the older vines for its award-winning wines, such as the Bernoota, an Aboriginal word for “camp among the gumtrees” and the name given to the original homestead on the property, where Ken and Marlene still live.

“As a family we’ve always wanted to offer great value in our wines,” Roger says. “We’re also very fortunate to have been working here as a family for 130-odd years, which means we aren’t having to pay off our vineyards.”

Lake Breeze, rated five red stars in the Halliday Wine Companion, is situated on the shores of the Bremer River, which feeds into South Australia’s colossal Lake Alexandrina.

Greg says one of Langhorne Creek’s great assets for winemakers is the Southern Ocean breeze that sweeps across Lake Alexandrina – about three times the size of Sydney Harbour – which helps create a cool climate, allowing for a long and even ripening period.

“When you look at the great cabernet wine regions of the world – places like Bordeaux, Margaret River and Coonawarra – they all have that maritime climate,’’ Greg says. “People forget that when it’s 35 degrees at 5 o’clock in the afternoon in places like the Barossa and McLaren Vale, it’s 23 degrees down here.”

So with the Bernoota mystery solved, let’s hope the Follett boys don’t ask for too big a pay rise.

 

Lake Breeze Bernoota Shiraz Cabernet 2021

The 2021 is a blend of shiraz (60 per cent) and cabernet sauvignon (40 per cent), drawn from vines around 40 years old. Langhorne’s easily accessible fruit sweetness and soft tannins are on show here. Dark fruit characters of blackberries and plums combine with choc mint notes and a touch of smoky oak. Matured for 20 months in French and American barriques. “There’s a plushness, a fullness, a generosity to this wine without it ever feeling forced,” Ryan wrote. “It just consistently delivers. 94 points.” 14.5 per cent alc; RRP $22 a bottle

SPECIALS $20.99 a bottle in any dozen; $25.99 a bottle in Best Value Reds six pack or dozen.

 

Vanguardist Oeno McLaren Vale Grenache 2023

“Michael Corbett is a brilliant, belligerent barrel of a man who deploys the full force of his high-octane obsessiveness in the pursuit of great grenache,’’ Ryan writes. “From the same vineyard as his rare and feverishly collected ‘Rende’ bottling, this wine shares a similar aromatic lift and red berried liveliness. There’s an alluring smidge of rubbed herb coming from a healthy percentage of whole bunches in the ferment, too. Grenache Yoda does it again. 95 points.” 13.4 per cent alc; RRP $42 a bottle

SPECIALS $25.99 a bottle in Best Value Reds six pack or dozen.

 

Jim Barry The Farm Single Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2022

“This neatly structured, precise and polished cabernet, with its alluring swirl of cassis, cedar and mint, is a powerful testament to the quality of Clare cabernet and the Barry team’s affinity with it,” Ryan writes. “The price is almost laughably low. 95 points.” 14.1 per cent alc; RRP $35 a bottle

SPECIALS $25.99 a bottle in Best Value Reds six pack or dozen.

 

BEST VALUE REDS SIX PACK Two bottles of each wine above for $25.99 a bottle.

BEST VALUE REDS DOZEN Four bottles of each wine above for $25.99 a bottle. SAVE $84 per dozen.

Order by simply clicking the links to our online store or telephone 1300 765 359 Monday to Friday, from 9am to 5pm AEST. Deals are available only while stocks last. The Australian Wine Club is a commercial partnership with Laithwaites Wine, LIQP770016550. Stockhead is partnering with The Australian Wine Club on this offer.

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