Soul Growers

Soul Growers was started by a group of four mates who had significant previous experience in larger corporate wineries and decided to pursue their own dream of creating wines that reflected the soul of the Barossa Valley.

That soul is the grape growing families in the Barossa Valley, those families who have nurtured their vineyards over generations and who were largely descendent from the original Lutheran German settlers who came to South Australia as early the 1830s when the South Australian colony was first established. 

Paul, Tom and Stu produce wines that reflect the family vineyards and exemplify Barossa Valley wines. Each batch of wines from each carefully selected family vineyard is treated separately through tank fermentation, pressing and aging in barrels. The very best of the best are produced into limited release single vineyard shiraz named after the grower families such as the "Kroehn", the "Gobell", the "Hampel", and the "Hoffmann". Similarly, a single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is produced from the "Limb" family vineyard. These wines are the flagship wines of Soul Growers and are in our super-premium selection.

The remaining Shiraz from those vineyards and a couple of others are blended to produce the "Slow Grown" shiraz. This premium wine has much of the quality of the super-premium single-vineyard wines but at half the price.

Soul Growers age their individual family vineyard shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, grenache and mourvedre in barrels using a mixture of imported French and American Oak barrels, and locally produced French and American Oak barrels depending on the grape variety and the source vineyard.

The cabernet sauvignon will only see French Oak and the higher the quality of wine the newer the oak.

Blending the different vineyard barrels to produce the wine that Soul Growers want to produce is like putting together a complex jigsaw puzzle. The wines include:

Provident Shiraz - a blend of vineyards from all around the Barossa and aged in old oak so that the oak is not prominent. This is a great value wine that says "Welcome to the Barossa, have a shiraz day".

Equilibrium GSM - a soft-bodied blend but with a richness that makes this wine their most popular. The base of the blend is the Grenache and the shiraz and mourvedre are added to make each vintage consistent.

Serendipitous Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir - the vineyard is right on the border between the Adelaide Hills and Eden Valley and so we will include it in our Barossa Range. This pinot has more body and richness than the typical pinot which was colourfully described by Stu as "that thin pissy shit".

Cellar Dweller Cabernet Sauvignon - this fruit is largely sourced from the banks of the Para River. It is aged in mainly old oak and all French. It is a very elegant style with only 7-10 days fermenting on skins. It is called the Cellar Dweller as it can be expected to hang around in the cellar for many years. This wine is in our Premium Selection.

Soul Growers mainly specialise in red wines but do produce a superb Eden Valley Riesling and a Rose that we were lucky to taste straight from the tank. 

Irrespective of whether the wines are the super-premium single-vineyard wines, the premium wines or the great value wines, the winemaking method and philosophy is the same.

 In a short few years, Soul Growers have achieved the pinnacle of Australian winery recognition by having been awarded 5 stars for their winery from Halliday with nine of their wines achieving a score of 95 and above with two more scoring 94.