Turkey
Flat is more than just a vineyard and
home of the best Barossa wines, it is a
family business that forms a vital part of
the region's rich cultural history and
heritage.
It was
here, on the banks of Tanunda Creek where
bush turkeys once roamed, that pioneer
Salesian settler Johann Friedrich August
Fiedler planted the first Shiraz vines in
1843. His vines flourished and the land -
Section One, in the Hundred of Moorooroo -
was bought in 1865 by Gottlieb Ernst
Schulz, a successful butcher who
established a thriving retail business
among the vines.
Butchering
developed into dairying, but the vineyards
were always kept, until Peter, a fourth
generation Schulz, and his wife, Christie,
made the transition from grape growing to
winemaking. They transformed the historic
bluestone butchers shop into the cellar
door and heart of their Turkey Flat wine
business, and made sure that the vines
that Fiedler planted so long ago, now
gnarled and twisted, are still a vital
part of the process.
And with
good reason, for it is the intense,
concentrated fruit from these ancient
vines that set Turkey Flat wines apart and
have made them sought after the world
over.
