Elderton Wines: The Barossa Estate Built on Vines Older Than the Winery Itself

Walk the Elderton vineyard in Nuriootpa and you pass Shiraz vines that were already producing fruit before Australia became a federation. The Command block went into the ground in 1894. Nobody alive remembers a Barossa without it.

That single block explains almost everything about Elderton. The estate does not chase fashion. It farms some of the oldest productive vineyards in the world, on the banks of the North Para River, and lets the age of the vines do the talking. What comes out of those rows is concentrated, structured red wine of a kind you cannot make from young plantings at any price.

You cannot plant your way to a wine like Command. The only ingredient that matters took 130 years to grow.

The Family Behind the Vines

Neil and Lorraine Ashmead took over the property in the late 1970s, at a time when the Australian government was paying growers to rip out old Shiraz. They kept theirs. That decision, unremarkable at the time, now looks like one of the great acts of stubbornness in Australian wine.

The gamble paid off publicly in 1993, when Elderton claimed the Jimmy Watson Trophy, the most visible prize in Australian wine. Today the estate is run by their sons Cameron and Allister, and the wines still carry the family's names on the labels. Ode to Lorraine honours their mother. The Grand Tourer nods to Neil's love of fast cars.

Four Wines That Define the Estate

Every bottle below is in stock at Chadstone right now. They run from an everyday old-vine blend to one of the rarest single-vineyard Shiraz releases in the country.

2022 Ode to Lorraine  ·  $60 A son's tribute, blended from the family's oldest rows Old vine Cabernet leads at 58 percent, with Shiraz at 37 and a touch of Merlot, all from the Nuriootpa home vineyard. Cassis and dark chocolate up front, cinnamon and clove underneath, and tannins that stay fine right through the finish. Drink: Now–2035  ·  Decant: 45 min Shop the 2022

2023 Neil Ashmead Grand Tourer Shiraz  ·  $60 Barossa Shiraz with the top down Named for a father who loved a good drive, and built the same way: medium bodied, deep crimson, all fresh blueberry and gentle spice with vanilla in the background. The most approachable serious Shiraz in the range. Only a handful of bottles remain. Drink: Now–2032  ·  Decant: 30 min Shop the 2023

2022 Command Shiraz  ·  $140 The 1894 block. The reason Elderton exists. This is the flagship, drawn entirely from Ancestor Vines planted in 1894 on the Nuriootpa estate. Every serious Barossa cellar has a vertical of Command in it somewhere. The 2022 continues a line of wines that reward a decade of patience, though the fruit is generous enough to open early. Also available in a 2018 half bottle at $75 if you want to taste before you commit. Drink: 2027–2045  ·  Peak: 2032+  ·  Decant: 1–2 hrs Shop the 2022

2023 Helbig 1915 Shiraz  ·  $420 A century of roots in the western Barossa The rarest wine Elderton makes. A single vineyard on the western side of the valley, planted in 1915, farmed for over a hundred years before this label existed. Production is tiny and allocations vanish quickly. We hold three bottles. Drink: 2028–2050  ·  Decant: 2 hrs Shop the 2023

Where to Start

New to the estate? Open the Grand Tourer on a weeknight and see whether the house style suits you. If it does, Ode to Lorraine is the natural next step, and Command is where the collection begins. The Helbig is for the moment you stop needing a reason.

A practical note on serving. These are full Barossa reds and they want air. Give even the entry wines half an hour in a decanter, and hold the serving temperature around 16 to 18 degrees. Slow-cooked lamb shoulder, beef short ribs and aged cheddar all sit comfortably alongside anything on this page.