Dec 3, 2022
Ideas for serving Liebich fortified wines with food:
Bulk Ruby Grenache– Savoury ideas include glazing for caramelised onions, sauce for red game meats. For a cocktail, pour over crushed ice and top up with tonic water for a refreshing balance of sweet and bitterness from the tonic
Bulk Semillon / Muscat – Add a dash to custard, dilute 50% with water and add to stewed fruit, 50% diluted with water, ideal marinade for dried fruits used in Christmas cakes and desserts
Classic Muscat – Serve with fruit mince pies or desserts that feature citrus or stone fruits
Classic Frontignac – Serve with ripe berries or tropical desserts, fruity cheesecakes or pavlovas
Classic Semillon – Perfect match with sticky date pudding, traditional Christmas pudding and toffee desserts such as creme brulee
Grand Tawny – Perfect with traditional Christmas pudding, chocolate truffles and desserts that feature any type of chocolate or roasted nuts
Mar 14, 2022
Ron Liebich is celebrating 53 years involved with Barossa vintages either as a vigneron, winemaker, cellar hand, champion grape treader and simply being a Barossa wine legend!
It was 1968 when he graduated from Roseworthy Agricultural College with his Oenology degree. Soon after he had the opportunity to take over from his Uncle “Darkie” Liebich in the winemaking duties and lab analyses at Rovalley Wines which was operated by the wider Liebich family. Since then he’s never looked back. Anyone who’s ever met Ron will know how passionate he is about wine and the local region.
Read more about the Liebich family timeline.
“Ron Liebich walks into Liebichwein’s Cellar Door, wearing shorts, tee-shirt and trademark pair of snips clipped to his leather belt.
He’s somewhat chirpy today because this Rowland Flat winemaker/grapegrower has just completed his 54th vintage and he reckons it’s a good one too.
He’d know, his grape-stained hands reveal a lifetime of dedication to an industry that has been part of his bloodline for generations, since his grandfather, Benno Liebich started making wine in 1919.
When Ron speaks to The Barossa Mag, he’s just finished picking Muscat, the last grapes to ripen perfectly in his 12 hectares of vineyard planted with a fruit salad of different varieties.”
Read Barossa Mag article ‘A fortified love for wine’ published in June 2022.
Dec 10, 2021
Fortified wines have a long history in the Liebich family. We are proud to continue the tradition of carefully ageing different varieties grown on our property. We grow Grenache, Semillon, Muscat, and Red Frontignac grapes especially to produce these styles.
Ron has been patiently curating family museum stocks, which have been maturing in barrel over many decades. There are barrels of all shapes and sizes that evolve and develop over time to reflect the glories of yesteryear. Ron was fortunate to have enough wine from three different varieties to qualify for being called “Rare” meaning an average blend age of 20 years or more. We are aligning our wine names with the fortified classification system as developed by Winemakers of Rutherglen. Australia has a long history of fortified winemaking. Learn more about it in this Wine Australia Fortified Wines
We’re thrilled to share these rare wines with you that have sat patiently for over 25 years. Every time you take a sip, think of the “angels share”, the wine that evaporates to the heavens during the ageing process. These are sensational sipping for a special occasion.
They are available from Liebichwein cellar door and online. All bottles are filled into 200ml bottles that are specially printed with gold ink. They are labelled and sealed with a wax stamp by hand at the winery. These rare indulgent wines are highly limited stocks.
Rare Muscat aged 25 years
Burnt toffee explodes on the syrupy palate and lingers long.
Rare Frontignac aged 25 years – Gold at Barossa Wine Show 2021
Honey and raisins explode on the syrupy palate and lingers long.
Rare Tawny aged 30 years
An exquisite aged Tawny style port capturing the essence of raisins and spices in a syrupy mouthful.
Purchase wines from the Liebich Wine Shop.
Jul 16, 2020
Filling fortified wine straight from the barrel at Liebichwein, Barossa Valley
Fortified wines have a long history in the Barossa Valley which is one of the most historic wine producing regions in Australia. Here at Liebichwein we certainly have a soft spot for fortified styles and love the fact that so many customers have home barrels for that extra touch of luxury at home. We pride ourselves on our extensive range of bulk fortified wines suitable for drinking now or further ageing in your own barrel. There are very few Barossa Valley wineries that offer the range we do for fortified wine lovers to taste, buy or refill containers of fortified wines.
There are six fortified wine styles sold by the litre for customers to taste and choose from. Many fortified wine lovers return with their own container and we sell reusable plastic containers (2, 5, 10, 20 litre). The wine you choose will ultimately depend on your taste preference and whether it is used to season a new keg, as a base wine or for topping up a barrel.
Winemaking
Ron Liebich continually makes large batches of bulk blends to keep up with demand by masterfully blending fresher vintage fortified wines with old museum stocks stored in the depths of the barrel shed. All fortified wines are produced from estate grown grapes left to fully ripen naturally in the vineyard. Ron loves the flavours of different grapes growing on the Liebich property so he makes his blends using four different varieties to produce flavour profiles ranging from aromatic, floral and sweet to spicy and nutty. Grenache, Semillon, Muscat, and Red Frontignac are all perfectly suited to fortified wine styles.
Bulk Fortified Wines
- Ruby Grenache – youthful unwooded Tawny is a light fruity style that is recommended to freshen up old syrupy or over-oaked barrel blends. It’s also pretty tasty on its own, a bit like concentrated berry cordial for adults.
- Ron’s Blend – smooth youthful Tawny style 2-3 years old, ideal for topping up barrels or freshening over-oaked or excessively aged barrel ports.
- Barrel Blend – rich semi-aged tawny with a balance of fruit and hints of woody notes (2/3 Ron’s + 1/3 Ben’s Blend). Only available at cellar door.
- Ben’s Blend – mature style aged 5 years with woody notes and spiced dried fruit. Ideal for adding to a newly seasoned barrel or adding complexity to a youthful base blend where more developed characters are preferred.
- Semillon – luscious white fortified with raisin and toffee flavours. Light youthful style for drinking now or adding to a barrel blend for sweetness and depth.
- Muscat – luscious white fortified with floral and citrus flavours. Light youthful style for drinking now or adding to a barrel blend for sweetness and depth (Muscat Gordo grapes)
- Frontignac – luscious fruity wine with aromatic, tropical and musk flavours to add sweetness and depth to a barrel (Red Frontignac grapes).
We invite you to visit cellar door to taste these wines in addition to a wide range of premium bottled fortified wines ranging in age from one to thirty years old. You can sit down and enjoy a fortified tasting experience to compare flavours, impact of barrel ageing and even taste rare museum fortifieds straight from the barrel. These unctuous, syrupy wines are certainly memorable and a sweet treat indeed!
Feb 6, 2020
Traditional German Streuselkuchen is a family favourite! This cake has a sweet yeast dough base and is topped with fresh or preserved fruit and a crunchy sweet crumble. It brings back so many good memories of Barossa afternoon teas and family gatherings. In summer we use mulberries, plums or apricots while in autumn we use pears, apples or grapes.
Prep 2 hours Bake 20 mins Makes one large cake 45 x 30cm
Yeast:
- 2 teaspoons yeast
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 cup milk warmed
- 1 teaspoon plain flour
Cake:
- 700g (1 lb) plain flour
- Pinch salt
- 70g (2 oz) butter
- 85g (3 oz) sugar
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- 1 cup sultanas or currants
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- Milk for glazing
- 3 cups of thinly sliced fresh fruit or whole berries (optional)
Streusel Topping:
- 2 cups plain flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup butter
- Sprinkle ground cinnamon
Directions
- Place yeast in a small bowl, add sugar and warm milk, plain flour, mix cover and stand in a warm place until the mixture turns frothy (takes around 15 minutes).
- Start making cake dough by sifting flour into a bowl, add pinch of salt. Rub butter and sugar into flour (flavourings may be added here).
- Add beaten egg to yeast mixture. Mix in the flour a cup at a time. Once the dough is too thick to mix, use hands to mix it and knead gently for a minute to a soft dough.
- Spread dough approx. 2cm thick onto a large oven tray. Brush cake top with milk to help streusel stick.
- Place seasonal sliced fruit or whole berries on top.
- To make streusel, rub sugar and softened butter into flour and cinnamon. Press with your fingers to make crumb consistency.
- Sprinkle streusel over the whole cake. Cover and keep in a warm place. Let the cake rise for an hour or until double in thickness.
- Bake at 200C for 15-20 minutes or until edges of cake are golden brown.
Feb 1, 2020
While the first Liebichwein sparkling wine project began as simply producing a wine for the family, it is now available as a limited release. We are over the moon with this Lovely Sparkling wine!
You may be asking, why have we made a sparkling and why has it taken us so long?
It’s no secret that Janet’s favourite wine style is fizz and our whole family enjoy sharing bubbles with friends and family.Ron has been experimenting with growing a variety of Pinot Noir clones and making the odd dry red which he’s been pretty happy with, but he was up for a new challenge. A trip to the Champagne region in 2014 was the inspiration needed for Ron to explore the realm of Traditional Method sparkling.
We knew we needed help with this project so we enlisted the support of Sean and Sue Delaney of Sinclair’s Gully and Simon Greenleaf who make fine wines in the Adelaide Hills. They all encouraged us to have a go and were willing to share their tips and provide access to their equipment. Excitedly, we embarked on the collaboration.
The Lovely Sparkling story started early in vintage 2014 when we handpicked our own Pinot Noir destined to be the sparkling base wine. This was then blended with fresher Pinot base wine from vintage 2016 to build complexity. In late 2017, we arranged a few rounds of dedicated tasting trials to get the balance of body and sweetness just right. The wine is hand-disgorged, dosaged, capped and labelled to order. We decided to use our own Ruby Fortified Grenache for dosage to add sweetness and a pink hue.
The next steps were to think of a suitable name and package. We chose the name ‘Lovely’ for a number of reasons. Our family name Liebich is very close to the German word ‘lieblich’ which means ‘lovely’, the Barossa Valley maintains strong German heritage, and of course the wine is pretty lovely to look at, sip and savour.
Taste Notes
Inspired by love and heritage, this blushing beauty offers tantalising strawberry and toasted brioche aromas leading to a lively palate that finishes dry to semi-dry. Simply lovely!
Quantities and strictly limited as each bottle is disgorged and labelled by hand.
