Jason Schwarz came to winemaking via a circuitous path. While he grew up surrounded by vines at his parent’s property in Bethany, he initially studied wine marketing at the University of Adelaide. On completion of his studies he headed overseas, visiting and working in Bordeaux, Burgundy, The Rhone, Stellenbosch and Napa. It was during his travels that he realized that his calling was winemaking rather than marketing and on his return to the Barossa in 1998 he began working in local wineries.
While not holding any formal qualifications in winemaking, Jason's appetite for the subject was voracious and he was lucky to learn from some of the Barossa’s finest winemakers until finally, after some encouragement from friends he approached his father to discuss buying a small parcel of his fruit from the 2001 vintage.
Jason was able to put together his first Nitschke Block Shiraz, making only two hogs head barrels. In 2002 he produced his first Thiele Road Grenache and have made both wines every vintage since. To this day his parents have supported his venture and without their encouragement and the sacrifice of some of the Barossa’s greatest Shiraz and Grenache Jason could not have made this dream happen.
Relationships with some of the Barossa’s finest vignerons have grown over the years and having access to some of the region’s best old-vine fruit allows him to take a hands-off, intuitive approach in the winery.
Jason hope his wines speak to you in the glass and tell the story of his life in the Barossa. His winemaking style is purposely low intervention, he likes the fruit to speak for itself, and he hopes you will agree.
