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| BAROSSA'S BEGINNING |
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The seeds were sown in 1830 in Brandenburg Silesia, a region of east-central Europe on the banks of the River Oder. The Silesian Wars of the eighteenth century were fought to gain control of the region because it was rich in minerals and ore. Eventually Prussia won. King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia belonged to the Reformed Church, based on the teachings of John Calvin, but many of his subjects followed the older, Lutheran form of worship. In an attempt to unite the Reformed and Lutheran Churches, he introduced in 1817 the new, official Union worship book. Many Lutherans could not accept it because, in their view, it went against some of their principal doctrines and was heavily biased in favour of the Reformed Church. Dissension was allowed until 1830 when freedom of worship was withdrawn and pastors were compelled by law to use the new prayer book or be dismissed from their posts. The Lutherans suspected that the King's aim was to eliminate their church and, in spite of persecution, a dwindling number of faithful fought hard to preserve it.
Pastor A.L.C. Kavel
At first Pastor August Kavel accepted the unification but, in 1835, he returned to the old Lutheran faith. Now a dissenting preacher, he decided to seek a place where he and his people would be free to worship as they chose. Some years earlier a group of oppressed Mennonites had emigrated from Prussia to Russia so he explored that possibility, |
but it came to nothing due to an uprising in Poland.
His next course of action was to go to Hamburg to look into
emigrating to America but that failed because of lack of funds to secure passages for all his congregation. However, while he was there he was given the name of a wealthy Englishman in London who might help, George Fife Angas. He set off immediately for England.
 George Fife Angas
George Fife Angas was born in Newcastle-uponTyne, the youngest son of a shipowner and coachmaker. He combined financial, philanthropic and religious zeal in all his undertakings. The South Australian Company, of which he was Chairman, owned vast tracts of land in South Australia with the aim of settling the new colony. George Fife Angas was approached in 1836 and he was sympathetic to the plight of Pastor Kavel and his people. He sent his chief clerk, Charles Flaxman, to Prussia and, after a favourable report, chartered two ships to take the migrants from Hamburg.
Kavel and his flock sailed from Hamburg on four ships: the Prince George and the Bengalee left in July 1838, arriving at Port Adelaide in November; the Zebra left in August and arrived in December, and the Catharina left in September, arriving in January 1839. As each ship arrived at Adelaide, the emigrants were dispersed to various settlements in the vicinity. However, they were anxious to make a life for themselves together in one place. After much negotiation, Kavel secured land in the Barossa Valley and, in 1842, the village of Langmeil was established. |
| ESTABLISHMENT OF LANGMEIL |
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By early 1970 Paradale had been taken over by Bernkastel Wines. Bernkastel continued its business until 1988 when its crushing operations ceased and by 1993 the cellar door was closed.
The property was purchased in 1996 by three local businessmen whose families have lived in the Barossa Valley for several generations: Richard Lindner, Chris Bitter and Carl Lindner. They restored the remaining old buildings and the village well, refurbished the winery and named it Langmeil, after the original village.
Some of Christian Auricht's original vines still remained, a 31/2 acre patch of the 1840s Shiraz, albeit neglected. The most important task was to revive them. The vines are dry grown and, after careful tending, Langmeil's first vintage was hand picked in 1997. |
One of the passengers on the Catharina was a 32 year old blacksmith, Christian Auricht. With his wife and four children he settled first in Glen Osmond, then in Klemzig and finally in the new village of Langmeil. There he acquired the largest allotment of land. Once cleared he planted a mixed fruit orchard and a Shiraz vineyard. He also started to build: a blacksmithy, a bakery, a |
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cobbler's shop, a butcher's shop and the village's first well. This became the trading centre of the village. The main highway to Kapunda and Burra, important copper mining towns then, passed by. Many travellers stopped to water their horses and gather provisions to continue their journey. The property remained with the family until the 1930s when it became a winery called Paradale. Selwin Auricht continued to help with maintenance until his death in 1964, the last member of the Auricht family to work there.
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| THE BAROSSA'S VINES AND WINEMAKING |
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| The Barossa is one of the oldest wine growing regions in Australia, with the first pioneering families establishing wineries as early as 1847. The first vines were planted in the early 1840s and many of them are still producing first class fruit. The reason for their longevity is that the Barossa has never suffered from phylloxera. This |
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wines including some from the Barossa. This was the turning point. The praise the wines received brought big orders. The United Kingdom started what is now a global demand for Barossa and Australian wines.
In 1843 Christian Auricht planted rows of Shiraz vines. This wonderful old dry grown vineyard flourished on the flats near the North Para River at Langmeil village. The late 1980s were hard times in the Barossa; demand for wine was down, grapes were left rotting on the vines and the government was paying a bounty to growers to pull out their vines. The Auricht vineyard was neglected, and 3 1/2 acres of Shiraz vines lay untended; they had not been pruned for about eight years; the strainers had collapsed and the trellis wires were broken.
Old Shiraz vine planted circa 1843
Now in 2002 it is the gem of Langmeil Winery estate. With tender loving care the vines have been restored and receive constant attention. They continue to be dry grown and, with hand pruning and hand picking, the grapes provide a wine with rich and unique qualities. Christian Auricht's old vineyard is the source of Langmeil Winery's single vineyard Shiraz. This rare wine commemorates the pioneering spirit of the first settlers and their willingness to endure so much hardship for the right to keep their faith; it has been named The Freedom. |
| devastating pest has seen the demise of many of the original vines around the world. Even Australia experienced outbreaks in Victoria in the early 1900s. |
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The Barossa can claim to have some of the oldest Shiraz, Grenache and Mourvèdre vines in the world, as well as other varieties. They still grow on their original roots which came from European and South African vines before they were destroyed by phylloxera. These exceptional circumstances allow the Barossa to produce some of the rarest wines in the world.
Like many wine growing regions, the Barossa has had its dark days. One of the worst was in the mid 1980s. Australia was experiencing a glut in wine production and export markets were very small. In South Australia the surplus was such that the government believed they had to intervene. They offered a bounty of $1500 per acre to growers to pull out their vines and they could not replant for seven years. The purchase price of grapes hit an all time low of $150 per tonne for premium Shiraz (in 2003 premium Shiraz earns $5000 per tonne). A lot of local growers accepted the offer and many prime vineyards disappeared.
Fortunately, a small group of Barossa winemakers understood the significance of the rare old vines and refused to destroy them. They lobbied and educated the consumer, the media and the government and promoted this unique aspect of the region. A delegation of Masters of Wine was invited from England to sample Australia's finest |
| LANGMEIL'S VINES AND VINEYARD STRATEGY |
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BAROSSA'S GEOGRAPHY CLIMATE AND SOIL |
It is said great wine starts in the vineyard. Langmeil's commitment to 100% premium Barossa wine certainly upholds this philosophy. Paul Lindner, chief winemaker, is involved in the winemaking process from vine to wine. Through liaison with growers, he sees how the seasons affect the fruit; he learns then recommends the best practices to ensure optimum quality. By keeping individual vineyard parcels separate throughout the winemaking process, he can assess each vineyard for consistency and quality every vintage. Such differentiation also highlights the varietal characteristics of each subregion. This process is crucial in ensuring wellbalanced wines with subtle complexities. Langmeil obtains much of its fruit from old, prephylloxera and own root vineyards throughout the region, in order to guarantee the quality and consistency of its wines.
Pruning methods vary according to variety and region within the Barossa. The most common methods are Rod and Spur (Cane Pruning) and permanent arm Spur Pruning.
Langmeil dry grows many of its own vineyards and encourages its growers to do the same. Because they are not irrigated, the vines search for water and push their roots deep into the ground. Thus they produce fruit of outstanding quality, with depth, colour and flavour not found in other, irrigated vines. Australia is the driest continent in the world and South Australia, the state in which the Barossa is located, is the driest state of Australia. Yet it is possible to produce in the Barossa outstanding wine from dry grown vines.
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The Barossa has been proclaimed a viticultural zone by the Australian Geographic Indications Committee. It consists of two regions: the Barossa Valley which extends from Lyndoch in the south to Kalimna, Moppa and Ebenezer in the northwest at an elevation of 200 to 300 metres above sea level; and Eden Valley which is slightly to the east at a higher elevation of 500 to 600 metres. The Barossa's vineyard area is approximately 17,000 acres, with an annual production approaching 60,000 tonnes.
The Barossa has a Mediterranean climate, characterised by cool, wet winters with temperatures between 8C and 20C and warm, dry summers where temperatures are generally between 30C and 35C. It is a reliable grape growing area with none of the disastrous extremes of climate experienced by many other wine regions around the world. Over 150 years the Barossa has traditionally been a dry grown viticultural region (no irrigation), which has ensured maximum quality and flavour. While modern growers have resorted to some supplementary irrigation to maintain quality during drought, there is still a commitment to minimal use of water and therefore the resulting low yields.
Barossa soils vary: alluvial sands, rich, fertile black soil of the Barossa Valley Floor, the infertile slopes overlying limestone in the Eden Valley, sandy loam over clay in the western Barossa. This wide range provides the basis for the Barossa's breadth of quality wine styles and regional characteristics and helps to produce wines with great complexity and depth of flavour. |
| THE WINEMAKER |
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Chief Winemaker, Paul Lindner |
Our winemaker, Paul Lindner, aims to produce world class wines using his own individual style to maintain the distinctive hallmark of the Barossa. With minimal handling and filtration techniques the full potential of the fruit is captured. The preference is for fruit driven wines with subtle complexity and individual vineyard characteristics, balanced by new and seasoned French and American oak.
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| LANGMEIL'S WINEMAKING TECHNIQUES |
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preserves a greater number of whole berries for the ferment which in turn ensures great complexity and sweet fruit characters due to partial carbonic maceration. Once the fruit begins to ferment, the juice is pumped over the skins twice a day to extract the maximum colour. After a prolonged time on skins the wine is drained into a tank. The skins are removed by spade into a basket press where they are gently pressed for around 24 hours. Because the pressing is so gentle, this liquid is also retained for the finished wine.
After the wine has completed its malo lactic ferment, it is matured in new and seasoned American and French oak barrels for 14 to 24 months prior to bottling. Paul uses no fining and there is minimal handling and filtration during all stages of wine production to guarantee quality and longevity. |
To maximise the quality of the fruit and capture the essence of the vineyards the right equipment is needed. Langmeil is a small, family run business and it has taken a few years to acquire all the equipment required to create our special styles of wine. The synergy of new and old world equipment has helped to capture the characteristics in each variety and protect the subtleties of individual vineyards. Thus the high quality of Langmeil's wine is assured.
As vintage approaches, Paul, our winemaker, checks the fruit on the vine almost daily until he feels it has reached its optimum quality. Then the grapes are hand picked and delivered to the winery. The fruit is placed in the receival bin and gently worked through to the crusher. Often the fruit only goes through the de-stemmer before being placed in an open fermenter. This  |
LANGMEIL'S COMMITMENT
Our team puts quality first and foremost. By educating staff, distributors, trade and the consumer about our wines, their sources and winemaking techniques, we demonstrate and reinforce the quality we strive to achieve.
Our philosophy is to produce only 100% Barossa premium quality wine made from varieties which excel in the Barossa. In this way we aim to be recognized and regarded as one of the top global wine producers. This will be achieved by continuing to seek out vineyards and varieties which produce fruit displaying excellent regional characteristics and depth of colour and by continuing to manage some vineyards of our own, setting an example of quality to our growers. This strategy will be maintained by focusing constantly on quality, even when quantity may sometimes suffer. Thus we preserve our integrity and that of our wines, and ensure the friendship and support of our customers. |
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As a young team we are dedicated to the success of our winery, driven only by quality in every aspect. We are willing to learn, listen, communicate, educate and to be open-minded. We trust you will enjoy Langmeil Winery's range of premium wines now, and continue to enjoy them for many years to come.
The team at Langmeil Winery |
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