2008 will be remembered as a difficult year due to a heat spike during vintage. Daily monitoring of fruit quality and flavor development was extremely important. Several different parcels were harvested separately in short breaks before the main heat burst. With smart canopy management during the growing season Glaetzer has produced a vintage, they are proud of, though it is small. The 2008 vintage shows great purity of fruit and firm but fine tannins, giving great structure and power to the wines.

80% Shiraz and 20% Grenache. Glaetzer’s experience has been that Grenache we know it does not handle oak well. For this reason we ferment and mature the grenache component in stainless steel to keep the freshness and animation of the fruit. The shiraz is matured in 2-3 year old oak barrels (80% French) for 12 months.

Barossa Valley, Vines ranging in age from 60 years old (Shiraz) to 80 years old (Grenache). The grenache fruit was powerful and robust in 2008, allowing it to play a strong role in the final blend. The percentage of grenache has dropped to 20% for this release to allow for this intensity.

The Glaetzer Family has been a part of the Barossa Valley and its viticulture history since 1888. After thirty years of winemaking, Colin Glaetzer established the family winery to create wines he’s passionate about – limited quantities of benchmark Barossa Valley reds. Today, his son Ben carries on this winemaking tradition at Glaetzer Wines.

Bishop is the family name of Colin’s wife Judith. Fittingly, the sign of Venus, a symbol which has come to represent women and feminine energy, is the centrepiece of the Bishop label. In mythology, the symbol meant the Roman goddess Venus or her Greek equivalent Aphrodite. But the sign has also been linked back to ancient Egypt – a nod to Bishop’s link to Amon-Ra and Anaperenna.