Laughing Jack Wines

Any Aussie worth his salt knows that Laughing Jack is the affectionate nickname given to our chucklesome native bird, the kookaburra. They perch high in the majestic Red and Blue Gum trees that surround the 35 hectares of vineyards at Laughing Jack, a small, family-owned winery near the Barossa hamlet of Greenock, where some of the best red wines in Australia are being produced.

The majority of the vineyard is given over to Shiraz, with smaller amounts of Chardonnay, Riesling, Semillon and Grenache. The winery prides itself on making rich, full-bodied wines with a touch of elegance that give full expression to the soil and climate of the area.

Laughing Jack’s fine-looking Shawn Kalleske is fast building a reputation as a cult winemaker to watch, with rave reviews from the U.K. as well as Australia. Shawn is the sixth generation of Kalleskes to farm the property since 1855, but the first to actually make wine. He was just eight years old when he attempted to make his first vintage, squeezing a bunch of grapes through his mother’s flour sifter. “It was just grape juice, of course, but I thought I’d made wine,” he laughs now.

Shawn’s come a long way – he’s learned about fermenting! – and now James Halliday is consistently rewarding Laughing Jack with exceptional scores in the mid-to-high 90s. The premium release Limited Two and Three range of Barossa reds are now almost impossible to source.

“There’s definitely an art to winemaking, but there’s also a lot of science involved,” Shawn says. “Your left brain and right brain both come into it.” - Megan Lehmann

Shawn Kalleske