Gumpara Wines

Gumpara Wines
In 1856 the Mader family, driven by religious persecution, left their homeland of Germany, to settle in Australia. The family brought with them traditional viticulture skills along with farming and fruit growing practices and set up a new life on 60 acres of land in the small township called Light Pass, in South Australia. Choosing a section of land aside the banks of the North Para (river) and eastern hillsides of the Barossa Valley, proved to be an excellent site to begin a vineyard. As time went by, all farming and fruit growing gave way to 100% viticulture.

Six Generations later, Mark Mader would produce the first wine under the Gumpara label, in the year 2000. The name Gumpara is derived from two words; Gum, meaning large red gumtrees, and Para, Aboriginal for river.



Terroir plays a major part in the quality of Gumpara wines. All of their fruit are sourced from small single vineyard blocks, most of which are situated on the north eastern hillsides of the Barossa Valley in the sub region of Light Pass. Not only are they single vineyard wines, they tend to be selected from precise sections of the vineyard where the fruit is of the highest possible quality. The soil type is mostly a combination of sandy loam, deep red clay, pink marble and ironstone on a limestone base, producing wines of exceptional fruit concentration, pallet weight and structure. These soils are not overly deep and are fairly porous. Vine root systems have grown in search for moisture in between the porous pebbly pink marble and ironstone fragments and are drilled into the limestone base. The red clay layer holds moisture throughout the growing period, but dries nearing harvest. This is especially important as the water and nutrient availability is less and the vines become slightly stressed, meaning that the flavour compounds become concentrated. This soil type profile directly gives the vines an ability to produce desirable smooth skin tannins that are reflected in the wine.The climatic conditions are ideal for producing outstanding table wines and the north eastern sector is where fruit for the Mader Reserve Shiraz is sourced. Yields range from 1/2 to 2 tonnes per acre which is perfect for optimal ripening and flavour development. Low bunch weights ranging between (75 – 90 grams) and small to medium berry size contribute to rich and intense flavours reflected in this wine. Pruning techniques and trellis systems have been modified to spread the fruit zone evenly, providing greater balance to each vine.Vine canopies are low to moderate in vigour in which bunches obtain ample dappled light for optimal ripening, and not too much light for bunches to burn in summer heat waves. After lengthy hot summer days, which can exceed 40°C, cool night gully breezes flow from the north eastern slopes to cool the ripening bunches and assist with the recovery of the vine after it has been slightly heat stressed. Flavours reflected in the wine include rich berry, chocolate, mint and pepper spice. All vine rows run east /west giving good sun protection, that allows dappled light to penetrate during ripening. Most of their vines are between 30 to 90 years old. All of the above factors, along with diligent wine making practices have lead to the production of outstanding quality wines, produced under the Gumpara label.



The fruit that goes into the Mader Reserve Shiraz is sourced from a special section of low yielding vineyard on the the eastern side of Stockwell Road in the North Eastern Barossa. The vineyard is on a significant rise up from the valley floor and so is slightly cooler resulting in slightly minty characters. The vineyard has an early bud burst and has a longer ripening period allowing development of the fruit and rich chocolate flavours. The selection of high quality fruit combined with maturation in new, or near new French hogshead oak barrels for 18 months is what makes this top end wine special. Using techniques such as partial barrel fermentation and light pressing methods, add to the structure and complexity of this fine wine. The wine has been enhanced by the removal of first stage free run and last stage pressings and is a great example of what Gumpara produces and is a wine of great flavour, depth and balance.

The Mader Reserve Shiraz is a typical big Barossa Valley Shiraz style, aimed to deliver on quality, flavour and structure. Rich in colour, displaying a creamy fruitcake nose, with flavours of dark berries, Barossa chocolate and warm pepper spice.

This outstanding wine was judged and recently awarded Five Stars in Winestate magazine’s “New Releases” July/August 2014 addition. The previous 2010 vintage was awarded third place in Winestate Magazines 2012 “WORLD’S GREATEST SYRAH & SHIRAZ CHALLENGE” from a field of 724 entries.
This outstanding wine was judged and recently awarded Five Stars in Winestate magazine’s “New Releases” July/August 2014 addition. The previous 2010 vintage was awarded third place in Winestate Magazines 2012 “WORLD’S GREATEST SYRAH & SHIRAZ CHALLENGE” from a field of 724 entries. According to Joy Waterfang from Winestate Magazine “for his 2010 Reserve Shiraz to come third out of 726 wines exhibited in the Great Shiraz Challenge, it meant he had to beat the socks off some of the country’s super premium iconic wines”. This wine is extremely rare and only 1,000 litres were produced in this vintage and so we are very fortunate for Mark Mader to allow us to include this special wine in our launch pack.