Saltram

Barossa Valley,  Australia

In 1844, a recently arrived immigrant from England named William Salter was one of the first people to purchase land in the newly opened land survey known as the Barossa Valley.
He built a stone house for his family naming it ‘Mamre Brook’ after Abraham’s spiritual home in the book of Genesis. Mamre Brook House still stands today as the spiritual home of Saltram.
William Salter and Son’s first planted grapes in 1859 and in 1862 produced 8000 litres of a wine appropriately named ‘No.1 Shiraz’.
In the history of Saltram there have only been eight senior winemakers and two families dominate the list: Salter and Dolan. Three generations of Salters made wine until 1937 and the Dolan's have played a part at Saltram from the 1950’s through today.

Nigel Dolan, Chief Winemaker at Saltram , is a two-time winner of the Jimmy Watson, triumphing in 1991 with a Cabernet Malbec. Nigel has taken Saltram back to its roots, focussing on Barossa sourced grapes and the styles of wine that had made Saltram famous for a century. Nigel’s achievements during his time with Saltram include being named South Australian Red Winemaker of the Year in 1996, Barossa Winemaker of the Year in 2000, and in 2001 he was a finalist in the Qantas Australian Winemaker of the Year competition.

Saltram is situated on Nuriootpa Road just a kilometre from the town of Angaston in the Barossa Valley. Saltram draws fruit from its own 45 hectare Saltram Vineyard that surrounds the Saltram Winery and Cellar Door as well as from other vineyards throughout the region. These vineyards are spread over from the cooler hills of the Eden Valley to the warmer areas across the valley floor.
The Saltram Vineyard has many varieties planted, with the vast majority planted to Shiraz, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, alongside some smaller plantings of non-mainstream varieties such as Malbec, Petit Verdot, Barbera, Nebbiolo and Sangiovese.

Most of the Saltram vines are irrigated via drip irrigation and supported on a variety of trellising systems with more recent planting on single wire trellising and t-trellising systems. Drip irrigation was developed in the 1950’s to allow viticulturalists to grow grapevines in climates with low rainfall. Today however, vineyards with a range of climatic conditions use drip irrigation as it allows them more control over the amount of water the vines receive. This extra control allows them to stress the vine by not irrigating at certain times, and irrigating it at others in order to control the crop level and quality of grapes the vine produces.
The Saltram Vineyard also have a number of older vines that were planted in the 1950’s and 1960’s that are dry grown - not irrigated at all. Dry growing the grapes on these vines produces more concentrated flavours and a higher skin to pulp ratio which improves wine colour and tannin levels. In good years, select parcels from theses vines go into the renowned Saltram No.1 Shiraz and various other special blends that make up Saltram’s superb range of wines.

See Saltram wines we sell

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