Rockford

Robert O'Callaghan founded Rockford in 1971 by purchasing a stone settler's cottage at Krondorf and building a courtyard shaped winery around it. He stepped back in 2012, appointing Ben Radford to take up his mantle.

Fruit is sourced from a viticultural patchwork of independent growers across the spectrum of Barossa soils, altitudes and climates. Rockford has helped save the Barossa's precious old vines and revived the art of traditional winemaking. Their equipment is from an earlier era, collected when other wineries modernized and discarded it. The winemaking is similarly traditional, extending to the sparse use of electricity, traditional basket pressing and large format old oak casks.

Rockford is an Australian wine icon. Their flagship Basket Press Shiraz is made from old Barossa Valley Shiraz. While they focus on established Barossa varieties, Rockford's exception is Alicante, used to make their Rosé style wine.