2010 Teusner Shiraz 'The Riebke' Northern Barossa

Unsurprisingly for Kym Teusner and Mick Page, beer played a major role in their decision to start Teusner Wines in 2001. Overhearing a couple of grape growers at the pub contemplating removing their 85 year old Grenache vines, Kym and Mick stepped up to the plate and offered them 4 times what they’d been paid by ‘the big guys’ for the crop if they’d keep the vineyard in the ground. The offer was accepted, the vines stayed in the ground, Teusner Wines came to life with a singular mission – to make the kind of wines they liked to drink!

The numbers of growers and the range of wines may have expanded over the years, but for Kym and Mick some things will never change. They’ve always insisted on treating their grape growers like the real people they are, and not just suppliers. They’re welcomed at the winery for a beer and invited to taste wines made from the old vine fruit their family has grown for generations. They’re paid well because not only do they work hard but they’re extremely good at what they do…as you’d expect from people that have been growing grapes for so many years. Kym and Mick reckon it’s by taking this approach that they’ve been able get fruit from some of the best of the old Barossa vineyards to make their wines.