I guess The Astral Series began to evolve from a little Grenache parcel in 2005. We ended up with one barrel of absolutely mind blowing Grenache from an 85 year old vineyard in Moppa. It was so good that we just couldn't bear to blend it away, so instead we bottled it off into magnums so that we could decide what to do with it later. We ended up with about 130 magnums - of which we have probably uncorked 40 for personal use.

Then in 2006, we had two puncheons of possibly the best Mataro that I have seen in the Barossa Valley. I figured that if we were to continue working with these awesome parcels of fruit we needed a new label for these extraordinary wines. So The Astral Series was born. In essence, The Astral Series range will be strictly reserved for single vineyard wines which are the "ultra-performers" of any given vintage. So there will not necessarily always be a certain vineyard or variety under this label, but you can be assured that anything that makes it here will be of outstanding quality.

The 2006 Mataro was brought to us from a vigneron called Stuart Roennfeldt. He rang on the eve of vintage 06 and offered us a small parcel of 65 year old Mataro. I ventured out to have a look at the vineyard and found a Grenache block. I rang Stuart and said 'mate, are you trying to have a lend of me? This is a Grenache block'. To which he responded 'stop being a winemaker and actually get out of your car to have a look at the vineyard - there's Mataro planted amongst the Grenache'. Indeed there was! It was an old school Barossa mixed planting of Grenache and Mataro. I was curious if Stuart had the faith in his pickers to determine the difference. He said he would get his family out there to do it if I wanted to take it on. We had a deal! It looked great from the very start of ferment. Loaded with aromatic Asian spice and nice round structure. I decided to mature this in 500 L barrels so as to interfere with the fruit as little as possible during it's ageing. The result is outstanding.

"Deeply coloured with an impenetrable, inky hue the 2006 Astral Mataro is remarkably aromatic for such a muscular wine. It displays intense aromas of blackfruits...blackberry, plums and black cherries with hints of roasted meats, five spice, eucalypt and a typical Mataro earthy streak.

In the mouth the wine is full bodied and shows excellent concentration and balance. Rich blackberry, black plum and kirsch fruits abound with hints of game meats, earth, Asian spices, pepper and sweet restrained oak. This superbly structured wine demands time in the cellar and will continue to improve in the bottle over the next 15 years."

Future wines that we have earmarked for this label include an 06 Shiraz from a 130 year old Riebke vineyard in Moppa - Simply called FG shiraz in the cellar…use your imagination for that one! And an 07 Shiraz from our Greenock grower that shows amazing structure and inky intensity.

Our customers have been asking where the white wine is in our range... Here it is!

We reckon if you are going to make a Sauvignon Blanc in Australia, the Adelaide Hills is the place to do it... cool climate, high altitude, great natural acidity... it ticks all the boxes. So when a mate who has a great vineyard at Woodside offered us some fruit, we had to jump at the opportunity and have a crack. So we'd like to introduce the 2008 Woodside Sauvignon Blanc... we are pretty chuffed with the results and we hope you'll enjoy it as much as we will over the Summer months.

The nose is expressive, with tropical fruit characters coming to the fore... passionfruit, gooseberry, rockmelon and nettles, complemented by the trademark Teusner creaminess and funky, sweaty, varietal complexity.

The tropical fruit characters flow seamlessly over onto the palate which is vibrant, keenly focused and zesty with a lovely mid-palate weight. The finish is long and zippy with a lip-smacking, limey acidity.

The absent minded boys at Teusner's loss is your gain. During the upheaval of moving into our new winery we managed to misplace a barrel of wine destined to make it into the 2005 Albert Shiraz.

Well the good news is we found it a couple of weeks ago....so we have one barrel only of some pretty schmick wine that we are releasing only to our mailing list customers.

The 2007 Salsa was so well received we decided to keep at it in 2008 - although this one is even a little dryer! This is a wine drinker's rose - dry, savoury and food friendly - made from predominantly grenache, with a little mataro and shiraz thrown in just because I can't help myself!

The fruit is grown specifically for Rosé - not bled off of other ferments - in order to retain as much natural acidity and freshness as possible.

The parcels of juice were pressed off skins and wild fermented in older hogsheads.

Once ferment was completed the wines were left on lees in barrel for about 3 months, with twice weekly stirring.

It is reasonably dry in terms of sugar (about 4.5g/L RS) but the sweet grenache fruit characters and extended lees contact give a rich and luscious palate.

The nose begins quite creamy and round due to the lees aging, through which the spicy summer berry characters of the grenache and mataro shine through. The flavours follow the nose quite closely, with a complete palate, tight clean structure and zippy acid.

A wine for drinkers who are serious about their rose.

The Avatar can be thought of as the Joshua's bigger brother. The fruit is sourced from the same fantastic old vine stock but the Avatar is aged for 16 months in seasoned oak....by seasoned oak we mean barrels that are between 4 and 10 years of age.

Aromas of deep set plum and dark berry fruits leap from the glass with hints of Asian spice, roasted meats, mataro earthiness, licorice and dark chocolate.

The palate displays excellent texture with ripe plum and blackberry fruit, five spice, mocha chocolate and licorice. The generous, supple fruit flows over to a prolonged finish with ripe, fine-grained tannins and a seam of bright acidity. We reckon the 2006 Avatar will age beautifully for 5 to 8 years.

The 2005 Avatar picked up rave reviews in the Australian and international wine press and we are confident they will be just as blown away by the 2006 release....here is what Nick Stock had to say about the 2005 Avatar in The Adelaide Review.

"Joshuas affable big brother, Avatar, is the same three way marriage of grenache, mataro and shiraz, but released a year older after a spell in seasoned oak. Teusner has a keen eye for this style and he ventures that this 05 Avatar is the best wine he has released to date. Just over half of the blend is grenache and there is plenty of fragrance backed by blackberry and plum fruits. The palate is deep and concentrated with precise ripeness and curvaceous tannins honed in barrel. The wine has an effortless sense of balance, mataro fusing shiraz and grenache together, already drinking superbly, it will improve for the next five to eight years."

Joshua is the first name of one of my earliest ancestors in the Barossa Valley. It is also the name of my youngest nephew, and son of my business partner, Michael Page. This fusion of young and old means the name 'Joshua' perfectly characterizes this wine.

Medium-bodied, fruit driven and bursting with flavour, the Joshua is our unoaked blend of Grenache, Mataro and Shiraz produced utilising fruit we source from some of the Barossa's finest, old vine stocks. The Joshua has always been about the fruit and the 2007 delivers in spades. It is a wine densely packed with spicy, vibrant, plummy fruit, cherries, roast beef, earth and asian spices.

In the mouth the wine displays beautiful,small berry fruits, dark plums studded with asian spice, licorice and a hint of pepper. The tannins are ripe and melt in the mouth leading to a spicy, prolonged finish. The 2007 Joshua should be enjoyed over the next five years.

The Albert, a wine named after Kym's Grandfather, Albert Alfred Teusner , is produced from two blocks of unirrigated, low-yielding vines in Ebenezer and Gomersal that are between 50 &472 90 years of age.

We age the Albert for around 18 months in French oak (30% new) before classifying the barrels,blending and returning the wine to barrel for a further 6 months to integrate before re-blending and bottling. The resulting wine is a pure expression and pristine, Barossa fruit.....deeply coloured and displaying great concentration and harmony.

Aromatically the wine displays rich, heady blackfruits..... blackberry, black cherry and plums with hints of cloves, spice, dark chocolate and espresso. The intensely flavoured palate is laden with deep-set cassis and black plum fruits with hints of cinnamon, five spice, coffee, earth and rich, dark chocolate all wrapped up in dusty, super-ripe, fine-grained tannins. While the 2006 Albert Shiraz is drinking beautifully now, it will repay careful cellaring handsomely. The Teusner Albert Shiraz was earmarked as being the emerging star of the Barossa in Gourmet Traveler WINE magazine.

"Like an inquisitive walk into a dark and cool cellar with a little dusty oak in the air, then deeper again there are loads of beautifully weighted dark fruits in the core of the wine, some garden herbs around the edges and long lasting pleasure all over. Tony Love, The Adelaide Advertiser, 94 Points"

This shiraz is named in honour of the Riebke brothers who are producing cracking fruit from the Ebenezer district in the Northern Barossa and have been instrumental in the success of our wines.

The 2007 Riebke shiraz is a sweetly scented, voluptuous wine that leaps out of the glass with aromas of ripe dark plums, blueberries, black cherries, eucalypt, pepper and spice with hints of violets and cola. The oak takes a back seat here, with the Riebke seeing 12 months in older French and American hogsheads so that the fruit can do all the talking.

The palate displays excellent texture and weight with densely packed, ripe plummy berry fruits, Asian spice, licorice and Barossan earth. It's concentrated, opulent fruit finishes long and savoury with chalky, super ripe tannins. A wine that punches well above its weight.

"The Teusner philosophy is to showcase the Barossa Valley in wines that are first and foremost affordable. The Riebke is the one that most clearly shows this promise. The fruit is sourced from Ebenezer and it has spent time in old oak hogsheads so that the fruit shines without distraction. It's a delicious, plush, juicy shiraz at a ridiculous price. Tony Harper, The Brisbane News"

"This is just great and I can't say I've enjoyed a wine quite as much for a good while. It was Friday night, and after a long week, I was ready to relax and have my fancy tickled. Well knock me down with a feather duster because this really did tickle my fancy. I don't drink many of the wines I review, but this bottle was pretty much knocked off; about an inch left in the bottom. It's a very good sign. Fragrant juicy dark cherry fruit, hints of pepper, meat and flowers. It's delicious and just over medium bodied with juicy cherried fruit that's sweet but not sweet (if that makes sense) but also appropriately savoury and earthy. With a lovely light glycerol mouthfeel, fine grained tannins, freshness, excellent length and flow this fruit driven delight offers complete satisfaction from beginning to end. Gary Walsh, The Winefront, 93 Points"