Red Queen of the Eden Valley Shiraz

Our Winemaker Elena Brooks crowned Colin Kroehn's Eden Valley Shiraz vineyard as our Red Queen. Its age, altitude, aspect and slopes are the key. Colin tended his beloved Shiraz vines for most of his life's 90 years and our Red Queen is made entirely of his vineyard. Planted in 1912, on a south facing slope of limestone bed rock covered with loamy sands absolutely laden with quartzite, the vineyard survives to this day. The rocky outcrops of quartz are spectacularly coloured with ironstone streaks, and sit over a c.1600 million year old Barossa Complex basement of gneiss and schist.

Elena's 14th vintage of Red Queen was hand harvested and sorted on April 20th, partially crushed gently to ferment ambiently and openly for 10 days, thrice plunged by hand, before basket pressing into half new and half one year old French Oak Barriques to finish fermentation.

After two and a half years maturation and a racking in the same oak, we bottled this vintage of Red Queen without filtration or fining, to capture the essence of the vineyard. Dandelion Vineyard’s Red Queen will reward cellaring and decanting. Thank you Mr. Kroehn for this legacy.

Awards: • Global Syrah Masters 2023 Masters Medal • The Real Review, Stuart Knox (28th Dec 2023) – 98 Points, Gold Medal, #1 of 17 2021 Shiraz from Eden Valley • 2023 Sommelier Challenge IWSC San Diego – Gold 90 Points • 2023 Decanter World Wine Awards – Gold 95 Points • Melbourne International Wine Competition 2023 – Gold Medal 94 Pts • Woman Wine & Spirit Awards 2024- Gold Medal • Sakura Japan Woman’s Wine Awards 2024- Gold • China Wine & Spirit Awards 2023 - Silver • International Wine Challenge UK 2023 – Silver • Critics Challenge IWSC 2023 – Silver • Royal Sydney Wine Show 2023- Silver 90 Points • St Martins Great Australian Shiraz Challenge 2023- Silver 92 Pts