Wednesday Wines – Episode 323 – Kaesler New Icon Releases
Tasted on Tuesday 30th June 2026
I conducted this tasting online with Stephen Dew, Kaesler winemaker and Nigel van der Zande, GM and Viticulturalist. All wines are already available or will be available from www.jeroboams.co.uk before too long.
WHITE
2025 Kaesler, Old Vine Semillon £23.95, ABV 11%
With a hint more fruit and more balancing traction than the gorgeous 2024, this is a more luxurious wine, while it manages to retain its alluring shape. This is a downright delicious wine! The winemaking was described as “hand harvested, pressed cold and crack on”, which I love. The grapes are picked on acid profile from a plot right next to the winery in one go. So, what they do on the day is assemble all the staff, start at 7am, and set the barbecue for 1pm. Genius and the results are genius, too. 18.5/20
RED
2023 Kaesler, Age of Light Cabernet Sauvignon £80.00, ABV 13.5%
2023 was a very tricky vintage, and the fruit at harvest was amazingly slippery, pulpy, violet-soaked and textural. So how did they do it? Spring 2022 was the wettest on record, so they shoot-thinned hard and early to keep the canopy open, and this decisive move reduced the crop load significantly to what turned out to be a normal level. And this very early decision allowed the fruit to ripen on time, while others hit rain at the end of the season, resulting in larger crop loads with sloppy wines! Kaesler’s hard work has resulted in a superbly polished and forward wine with more mulberry and plum notes than previous vintages, and it is incredibly charming. It had flavour on the vine at 12.5% potential, and they picked at 13%. The clones at Kaesler need a long season, and this is perfectly suited to Barossa. They also do not use any herbicides, and it has natural acidity. This results in a stunningly beautiful, ‘naked’ Cabernet, and it will be certain to amaze every single person who is lucky enough to taste it. 18.5/20
2023 Kaesler, The Bogan Shiraz £34.50 14.5%
Some five or six blocks now make this wine, and this brings a degree of complexity which was lacking in the past. They even utilise a sniff of fruit from their Marananga Block which was planted in 1899, and that doesn’t make it into WOMS or Alte Reben. The aim with The Bogan is to make it fruit-driven and acid-pricked. This was achieved in 2023. Only 25% new oak was used, allowing the fruit to refresh the palate while also being a couple of shades darker and more liquorice-soaked than before. Somewhat of a dichotomy, this is a less muscular wine than expected, but it’s just as dark and swaggering: like a young Batman. This is a very clever shift of focus, making The Bogan an autumnal, not winter wine. Perhaps it’s the cleansing acidity that lifts the finish, allowing the fruit to glide along unencumbered. Either way, it’s finer than 2022, and it will thrill fans of this label. 18/20
2023 Kaesler, Old Vine Shiraz £39.95, ABV 14.5%
This plot of Old Vines sits alongside Old Bastard, and it is inextricably linked to its cantankerous friend! There is no doubt that this is the most aromatic and expressive Old Vine I have tasted. And it is fractionally smoother and less powerfully extracted than previous vintages. The soils are easier here, and they make a slightly more open and red-fruited wine; coupled with large-format barrels, the results are enchanting. This is a red cherry-soaked style, and while it is rich and indulgent, it is also more forward and silkier than this label has ever been at three years of age. It could not be more different to The Bogan with its crimson fruit palette and stunningly refreshing, Chianti-like acidity. 18/20
2023 Kaesler, Alte Reben Shiraz £75, ABV 14%
Coming from a wild Marananga plot, this wine shows a much more attacking, darker fruit than the previous Shiraz wines, and it loads more bitterness and tannin onto the finish, too. The Alte Reben site is powerful and mineral-soaked, and it brings a tannin profile that pinches the palate, adding leather, wild herbs and rocky notes to the sleek, black fruit. While the nose is open and initially welcoming, the power comes in on the mid-palate and shuts it down. It is the mirror-image of Old Vine, this time adding dark chocolate and strawberry coulis to a more muscular core. It needs five years, but this is clearly a brilliant wine. 18.5+/20
2022 Kaesler, Old Bastard Shiraz £115, ABV 14.5%
I am certain that arguments will rumble on as to whether the 2021 or the 2022 is the finer of the two wines! I know my thoughts, and you will see from my score that I think there is nothing that could be added or rearranged to make this 2022 a more perfect Old Bastard. It is extraordinarily long, very clean and stunningly appointed. Interestingly, no Alte Reben was made in 2022. In addition, this is a superbly refreshing wine with gently scouring tannins and epic length. The fruit profile is blue, red, and black, loaded with discreet florals, incredibly complex and massively seductive. And the oak is simply incredible as it is super-fine-grained, like phenomenal marquetry which augments the class of this wine immeasurably. There are only a handful of wines that I have tasted this year which use oak to such mesmerising effect. This is the finest Old Bastard I have ever tasted, and while it is grand in the glass, it is also startlingly elegant. At the end of my scribbled tasting note, I wrote a word I have never used for a Barossa Shiraz before: Musigny. Yes, this wine, despite the fact it comes from the other side of the world and is made from a wholly different grape variety, has Musigny-like qualities. As I edit this note a couple of weeks after tasting the wine, I can still remember every detail of its flavour. 20/20