Watervale Gardeners

In ’19, Tom and Sam Barry, sons of Peter Barry (and grandsons of Jim), bought an old vineyard in the tiny village of Watervale in the Clare Valley. As a nod to the region’s historic reputation as the ‘garden of the north’, particularly the ‘gardeners’ who used to tend its orchards, they renamed it Watervale Gardeners and in ’25 released their first wines under this new and distinct label. The vineyard is planted to riesling, shiraz and grenache. The wines are distinguished by vine age: both shiraz and riesling are made from ’54 plantings, as is a grenache, although a second grenache is off the site’s original ’38 plantings. -ANNA WEBSTER