Barossa Valley Archives - Young Gun of Wine

Alexey Doumbouya

Alexey Doumbouya is a winemaker at Yalumba whose path to the Barossa runs through Israel, Argentina, Serbia, Italy, France, South Africa, Hungary and Washington DC before arriving at the University of Adelaide for a Master’s in Viticulture and Oenology. Since joining Yalumba in 2022, he has taken responsibility for a broad portfolio across the Samuel’s Collection and premium ranges – including the Eden Valley Chardonnay, Eden Valley Roussanne and Galway Vintage Shiraz – with the Vat-11 Grenache, sourced from a 58-year-old dry-grown vineyard on the Barossa Valley floor in the Marananga sub-region, his most personal creation, and The Virgilius Viognier, grown in Eden Valley from a vineyard first planted in 1980, a prestigious stewardship he has inherited and is now shaping. The Vat-11, notably, does not undergo malolactic fermentation, a deliberate choice that sets it apart from nearly every other red wine in the Barossa and gives it a brightness and precision that is very much Doumbouya’s signature. Both wines are made with wild fermentation, minimal intervention, and an emphasis on letting the vineyard do the talking.

Marcus Torzi

Marcus Torzi was 21 years old and still completing his Bachelor of Viticulture and Oenology at the University of Adelaide when he launched Whispers of Chaos – already making two of the most quietly arresting wines to come out of the Barossa Valley in recent memory. The label debuted in August 2025 from the family farm at Mt McKenzie with two wines: a roussanne, riesling and semillon white blend, and a sangiovese and cabernet sauvignon red. Both are unfined, unfiltered and made with Italian stoneware as the primary maturation vessel. Both have a delicacy and lift that feel like a deliberate, considered answer to the questions the Barossa is currently asking itself. In a region wrestling with its own identity, Torzi’s project is less a debut label than a signpost.

Sophie Melton

Sophie Melton is, in the most literal sense, a product of the Barossa. The daughter of Charlie Melton – whose Nine Popes helped define what Barossa GSM could be – she was in the winery before she was in high school, and has never really left. Now winemaker at Charles Melton Wines, she makes the classic Barossa reds her father built his reputation on – grenache, shiraz, mataro and their blends – with the same conviction that the region’s old vines are worth defending, not reinventing. Alongside that, her own Domaine Sophie Claire label gives her room to move: a small, intentional range in deliberately contemporary packaging – a world away from the traditional Charles Melton aesthetic – anchored by a riesling she is most passionate about, and orbiting outward from there into a GSM riff that swaps mataro for riesling in the blend, a rosé, and a Méthode Traditionnelle sparkling rosé – the traditional method used to make champagne, where a second fermentation occurs in the bottle to create bubbles. Two labels, one region, one winemaker finding her own voice within a lineage she’s proud to carry.

2010 Charles Melton Wines ‘Grains of Paradise’ Shiraz

An aged example of top-end Barossa shiraz, this svelte beast of a wine proves that the region’s power can be harnessed in service to finesse – and that not every ‘cult’ producer makes stereotypically boozy, brash wines.

2023 Yelland & Papps ‘Vin de Soif’

A Barossa red with a French name that drinks like a pinot noir? Mais oui. This bright, crunchy blend of three Mediterranean varieties is a dangerously drinkable departure from the Barossa norm.

Scott McGarry

In ancient Rome, the phrase Nil caput quoerere – ‘to search for the source of the Nile’ – was used as an idiom to describe attempting the impossible. While Scott McGarry’s wines under the Source of the Nile label don’t strictly speaking attempt the impossible, there is definitely a hint of the Quixotic about this project, which sees McGarry commute from his home in northern New South Wales to the Barossa Valley every year for vintage, where he makes wine from fruit sourced from all over Australia. Over two releases, each consisting of a minuscule three cuvées, McGarry has established himself as one of Australia’s most interesting natural/lo-fi winemakers. Largely self-taught – with some help along the way from Jilly Wines’ Jared Dixon – McGarry’s wines speak of the wild magic that can happen when quality fruit meets an untamed and somewhat untrained maker.

2021 Sigurd Reserve Syrah

Modern Barossa is perhaps an abused term, but it couldn’t be more apt here. A wine of impeccable elegance and balance, but with weight and earthy, spicy intent.

Daniel Vladimir Zolotarev

Daniel Vladimir Zolotarev’s journey in the winemaking realm reflects a harmonious blend of tradition and innovation, deeply rooted in the rich terroirs of Barossa Valley. With an undergraduate degree in viticulture and oenology from the University of Adelaide, Daniel’s career trajectory has seen him take on roles from vineyard hand to a pivotal position at Curator Wine Co, where his collaboration with Tom White, the owner, has been instrumental. “We have about a 50/50 contribution between the both of us in terms of decision-making and processing responsibilities, from growing to bottling,” Daniel shares, highlighting the partnership’s balanced approach to winemaking.

Alexey Doumbouya Yalumba