The Lofty Cabernet Sauvignon – Museum Release

The Lofty Cabernet Sauvignon square

Liebich Lofty Cabernet Sauvignon is wine of great quality and character dedicated to Ron’s father, “Lofty” (Lesley Alwyn) Liebich (1916-1953) who was a man with high ideals. Produced in special vintages since 1992 when the cellar door was established.

Single vineyard wine sourced from the old 40 acre block, planted by Clarence Walter “Darkie” Liebich in 1969. Dead arm affliction reduces yield but enhances flavour as does the use of hand-pruning and minimal irrigation. The vines grow on heavy black biscay soil at Rowland Flat on the eastern foothills of the Barossa.

Special museum stock is released as it becomes available. The last vintage 2006 bottled under The Lofty label was a very good growing season resulting in an extremely low yield of 1 tonne per acre. Traditional techniques of hand plunging, basket-pressing with no fining or filtration were employed for fuller flavour.

A typical Liebichwein Cabernet Sauvignon is a rich and enticing wine exhibiting violet and spiced blackberry fruit nuances perfectly balanced with the subtle oak after maturation for over five years in various aged French oak barrels. Super concentrated flavours and ultra silky tannins. This style of Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon will always be good drinking and will reward patience with bottle maturation for at least 15-20 years.

Liebich The Lofty Old Vine Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintages released: 2006, 2004, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1995, 1992

Purchase special museum release Vintage 2004 here.

The making of Liebich Lovely Sparkling

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.

 

Beautiful Barossa in Winter

A magical spot where you feel on top of the world.

This view is high up in the Barossa Ranges between Steingarten Road and Trial Hill Road. The ‘Steingarten’ (meaning stone garden) vineyard was planted in the 1960’s by the Gramp family who were inspired by the narrow vineyards planted on stoney ground in areas of Northern Germany.

To see for yourself, ask in cellar door for directions and you’ll be blown away (quite literally in winter) in only a few minutes drive from our cellar door.

Our backyard is stunning during winter!

Celebrating 25 Years of Liebichwein

 

The Liebich family have been passionate about wine in the Barossa Valley for almost 100 years. This is a brief look at what was happening around Australia and the Barossa region when Ron and Janet first established the Liebichwein label 25 years ago. Ron is the third generation winemaker to be based in Rowland Flat, South Australia and he’s preparing for his 49th Barossa vintage at age 71.

1992

What happened in Australia in 1992?

  • Artists in the Top 10 Australian music charts included Billy Ray Cyrus, Guns ?n Roses and Whitney Houston
  • Average petrol price was 68 c/L
  • The cost of a postage stamp was increased from 43 cents to 45 cents
  • The Australian 1 and 2 cent coins were withdrawn from circulation
  • The Prime minister was Paul Keating
  • The first WOMADelaide music festival?was held at Botanic Park as part of the Adelaide Festival of Arts
  • The Cricket World Cup was held in Australia and New Zealand where Pakistan?defeated England?in the final at the MCG by 22 runs
  • The AFL grand final was won by West Coast Eagles, the first non-Victorian team to win
  • There were about 700 wineries in Australia, now there are well over 2500 (over 150 in the Barossa region)

What happened in Barossa Valley in 1992?

  • The estimated population of the Barossa Valley council area was 18,000 (now 24,500)
  • A mixed vintage for wine quality since the warmer regions like the Barossa didn?t receive the heat normally required to deliver the typically concentrated and rich reds wines.
  • The?Barossa Valley railway line?past Penrice junction was officially declared closed, 18 year later the track between Angaston and Nuriootpa was lifted and a shared path for bikes and pedestrians was put in place
  • The winery shed was built in Rowland Flat where Liebichwein cellar door still is today
  • Liebichwein Cellar Door opened in December 1992 operating on weekends only
  • Steingarten Road in Rowland Flat was known as Narrow Road
  • Ron was reigning grape treading champion of the Barossa Vintage Festival
  • The first range of Liebich table wines: 1992 Cabernet Sauvignon, 1993 Shiraz, 1992 Riesling of the Valleys (Barossa fruit grown by Ron blended with some Clare Valley Riesling grapes)
  • The first Liebich fortified wines: Classic Old Barossa Tawny, Benno Port, Ron’s Blend, Keg Blend
  • Tending the fruit for Ron’s first Riesling Traminer blend dedicated to his dear mother Lorna as it was her favourite style to drink (trophy winner in 1993 for best sweet white at the Barossa Wine Show)
  • Ron started planting Merlot, Grenache and Semillon vineyards to complement the older Shiraz and Cabernet in the?40 acre block inherited from older generations

?Read more about the Liebich family history

Liebich Museum Red Wine Tasting

 

We hosted some very special tastings at cellar door during the 2017 Barossa Vintage Festival in April.

Over our 25 years of business, Ron has been carefully stashing away a few cases of each vintage ever produced of our premium red wine range. What a treat it was for us to taste our museum stocks to see how they were travelling. Overall, they are all aging well and the following vintages were selected based on their greater intensity and developed varietal characters.

Winemaker Ron Liebich’s Comments:

The Darkie Shiraz

Vintage 1999 – A relatively cooler year produced a wine with everything you’d expect for Barossa Shiraz. This wine still show great depth of colour, fruit intensity and complexity. Developed fruitcake spice, smoky oak and lovely pepper hints carry through to smooth long palate.

Vintage 2001 – A great quality season helped the wines make themselves in the vineyard. A concentrated and full bodied Shiraz with magnificent mouth feel. Tight tannins still grip a little, but are nicely balanced with subtle woody notes and cherry jam sweetness. Beautiful development under cork. 2001 is holding up better than the 2000?s. Still has a few years to live.

The Lofty Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage 1998 – A superb quality season. This Cab still shows great depth of colour, fruit intensity and complexity. Palate is spot on with acidity and drying tannins contributing to a tightly structured, persistent palate. Drinking well now.

Vintage 2001 – A concentrated Cabernet with super fine tannins and a lack of any aggressive oak characters. The trademark style of Liebichwein Cabernet still comes through with ripe blackberries and intense floral violet notes. Palate is still fresh and amazingly long. Still has a few years to live.

 

Barossa Winter Storm Looked Like Snow

hail11

12 July 2012

Hail storm 12 July 2016

12 July 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the depths of winter in Barossa Valley. It’s always cold and wet, but it usually never snows. On 12th July 2016 a sudden hail storm passed through Rowland Flat and surrounding towns leaving snow-like trails. This was nothing compared to the hail that fell exactly four years ago to the day in a bizarre coincidence. The freak hail storm in 2012 only affected a very narrow band of the Barossa Ranges including our property on Steingarten Road, Rowland Flat. It hailed so much in 2012, it really did look like snow!

More Photos – Barossa Winter Wonderland

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