Langmeil

Langmeil was founded in 1842 by Christian Auricht, a Prussian settler who fled persecution in Europe to find freedom in South Australia's Barossa Valley. A blacksmith by trade, he planted vines on his new property in 1843, a small patch that would later be identified as the world's oldest surviving Shiraz vineyard. The winery and village fell into disuse for decades before three Barossa families, the Lindners and the Bitters, restored the old buildings in the 1990s and revived the forgotten vines, producing the first Freedom Shiraz vintage in 1997.

The Orphan Bank Shiraz tells a similar story of rescue: ten rows of Shiraz planted before 1860 were saved from a developer's bulldozer and replanted alongside Langmeil's own vines on the banks of the North Para River, giving the "orphaned" vines a new home after more than 150 years.