Winemaker releases alluring set of Barossa drops with 'the full Penfolds treatment'

Sky News AU

03-07-2025

Jason Barrette is the only winemaker I know who can launch a surface to air missile.
The former Army veteran who walks with a limp has released an alluring set of Barossa wines made unashamedly in the Penfolds style.
The release is under 56-year-old Barrette's own label, Camino Wines.
His first foray into winemaking began at Magill Estate in Adelaide at the spiritual home of Penfolds.
Under the tutelage of Penfolds winemaking commander-in-chief Peter Gago, Barrette rose to be a senior winemaker handling the A grade fruit and assisting Mr Gago in making top-tier wines like Grange, St Henri and Bin 707 while being in charge of the cellar reserve range.
'Gago was my boss and my mentor and became a great friend,' Mr Barrette said.
He said Mr Gago was a stickler for detail and had an enormous capacity for work.
Some mistakenly regard Mr Gago as a mere figurehead because of his frequent globetrotting to host dinners and show wine to critics in key markets in Europe, the US and Hong Kong.
Even some within his own company Treasury Wine Estates saw Mr Gago as a figurehead, even though he was hands-on during all phases of the winemaking, Mr Barrette said.
He remembers he once went to the winery at 11.30pm after a long flight because he was excited to taste the new ferments.
'During vintage he is at the winery at 5am. He is at work before anyone and the last to leave.
'Although he does a lot of travelling, he is always down there to taste when the grapes come.
'We tasted twice a day.
'With Peter I learnt more in my first 12 months at Penfolds than I did in four years at university. The passion he has for Penfolds runs through his veins.
'Gago is one of the top five winemakers in the world. What he does for the Australian wine industry is amazing. He elevates everyone's wine in the eyes of the world.'
Mr Barrette said Camino was the culmination of 20 years of winemaking in Europe, the US and Canada.
'Camino is a celebration of every vineyard I've worked in, every lesson I've learned, and every story I've had the privilege to tell,' he adds.
His first collection features seven wines, including 2024 Barossa Valley Tempranillo, 2024 Adelaide Hills Grüner Veltliner, 2024 Barossa Valley Grenache Blanc de Noir, 2023 Adelaide Hills HSV Chardonnay, 2023 Centenary Vines Barossa Valley Grenache, 2023 Barossa Valley Grenache Rosé, and the flagship 2021 Paradigm Vineyard Marananga Shiraz.
The flagship Camino 2021 Paradigm Vineyard Marananga Shiraz makes a bold statement about where Barrette sees his new venture.
It's a powerful yet poised Shiraz from 80 to 100-year-old vines in the heart of Marananga.
It's next door to Torbreck's famed Laird vineyard.
His leading wine shows a marriage of dark plums, dried herbs and spice on the nose with underlying cedary oak.
The palate is plush, generous, and structured, finishing long with earthy ironstone notes.
'It's had the full Penfolds treatment,' he said.
The fruit is picked at optimum ripeness, and he chose AP John Coopers American oak barrels to store it. And Mr Gago would approve.
'I've had a lot of experience working with fruit from Marananga.
'When I was at Penfolds and later at Paulmara Estates and now with my own brand.'
Mr Barrette was an air defence artillery specialist in the Army.
'I'm a World War I buff and went backpacking with a group of my Army mates to Gallipoli and the Western Front. In Europe I fell in love with the food and wine culture.
'Later I had a serious training accident when I fell from a great height at Woodside (Army base in South Australia) and ended up with a 12-inch plate and 13 screws in my leg.
'Twenty operations later there was less opportunity for me to deploy on active service.'
Injury sidelined him from the second Gulf War.
He quit the Army and a week later went straight to Adelaide University to study winemaking.