The Artisans are a a select group of like minded Barossa producers who all make hand-made, high quality wines and yesterday they put their wines on show in the small town of Greenock (Barossa Valley, South Australia). The $20 entry included a Reidel tasting glass and a yummy light lunch (wood oven pizza, Barossa Kalmata olives, freshly baked bread and local sausages with a hand made relish).

New releases and barrel samples were put up for tasting from Clancy Fuller, Hobbs, Kalleske, Massena, Mt Billy, Schwartz, Spinifex, Standish, Teusner, Tin Shed and Torzi Mathews.

I enjoyed all the wines from these producers and each wine was of very high quality with not a slacker amongst them :-)

My top 5 out of the 25+ wines tasted would be (in order):
1. 2005 Kalleske Greenock Shiraz - Wow, another stunner from Troy, an absolute standout. 98 Points
2. 2005 Spinifex Indigene Mataro, Shiraz. Wonderful flavours, great structure and balance. 97 points.
3. 2005 Schwartz Nitschke Block shiraz. Rich, intense, chockablock with fruit. 97 Points
4. 2004 Massena The Eleventh Hour shiraz. Dominant savoury flavours with long sweet fruit on the finish. 95 points.
5. 2004 Teusner Albert Shiraz. Great texture, rich fruit, bony tannins. 95 points.

And a special mention to:
2005 Schwartz Theile Rd. Grenache. I like this style, Elegant, balanced and interesting. 94 Points
and
2004 Massena The Howling Dog Durif. Big, intense and rich with dry, stiff tannins. 94 points