Paisley - Small-Batch, Hands-on Textural Barossa Wines
The first time Puneet called Derek at Paisley Wines, he could immediately tell he was out in the vineyards and knew this was a good sign…
At Dhall & Nash our core values are to respect those who create wonders by patiently loving, toiling and knowing their small piece of earth, so to hear Derek say ‘G’day’ with a hint of a sunny squint, as he tended the vines, piqued our already growing interest in this Barossa producer.
Paisley Wines are the newest Aussie addition to our portfolio and they are a real embodiment of what we love about wine. They’re a small but mighty daily endeavour, hands-on in the vineyards daily. No corporate bigwigs peeking in from remote offices and an endearingly healthy number of animals in different shapes and sizes calling the vines home as the family works amongst them. It’s charming in every sense of the word.
At this stage we’re offering awesome reds, from across 3 of their 4 lines. So without further adieu let us introduce Paisley Wines.
Paisley Wines and Derek Fitzgerald
Paisley Wines is the result of a love affair with Barossa wine, by long-time winemaker Derek Fitzgerald and his wife Kirsten. They live with their daughter in a hilltop home on their Angaston estate. The couple met at “The Church” – a Sunday afternoon recovery party – in London in 1995. Kirsten likes to claim that Derek was trying to impress her by drinking wine rather than beer when they met.
Derek started his professional career as a chemical engineer, earning his Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical and Biomolecular) at the University of Sydney, but held a passion for wine on the side. Speaking to the university later about his career progression and how this degree morphed into winemaking, he explained, “Having developed a love of good wine from my wife Kirsten, I thought that winemaking could be a fun and interesting profession that still used the skills I’d learnt in my engineering degree. I love all parts of winemaking – balancing the science with the more artistic aspect of blending to create something delicious…”
And right he was. After a few chemical engineering roles he quickly pivoted, officially enrolling to study Oenology at the University of Adelaide in 1997, and then cut his teeth as a winemaker around WA, Langhorne Creek and the Barossa Valley at wineries such as Thorn Clarke, 1847 Wines, Robert Oatley and Bremerton. Eventually with 20 years under his belt, Kirsten started to suggest that perhaps it was time to start their own venture…
In 2016, Derek & Kirsten officially launched Paisley Wines. It started out small, described more as a ‘hobby farm’ initially before its first vintages were made a year after they settled. With resident chooks, sheep, cats and guinea fowl roaming, it was a lively and fun venture from the get-go. They started the winemaking with the three red grape varieties Derek believes the Barossa does best – Grenache, Shiraz and Mataro before adding parcels and plantings, eventually expanding to its total area today of 15 acres.
The story behind the brand name is interwoven with history – Kirsten’s great-great grandfather Kirsten’s great-great grandfather, John Gardner and his wife Susan, came to Adelaide in 1839 from a town in the west central Lowlands of Scotland called Paisley. Bold label designs lean heavily into this brand theme, with strong references both to the iconic pattern and to the evocative ‘textural’ associations.
On the side, Derek also makes wines for the Burge Family Wine Estates, following in Rick Burge’s shoes.
The Paisley Wines
The Paisley Wine range has four different tiers. Each range has been created to reflect the couple’s passion for art, books, music and of course food and wine! We stock wines from three of these tiers.
The “Mixed by DJ Deadly” Range
Derek’s 90’s love-affair with dance parties and techno music has inspired this range of wines. The ‘Mixed by DJ Deadly’ range features colourful record shaped front and back labels.
Derek, aka ‘DJ Deadly’, was called ‘Deadly Derek’ back at school by one of his teachers. He used to make mixtape CDs for friends with his best DJ mixes and signed them ‘Mixed by DJ Deadly’ before trying his hand at the decks in the 90’s. He’s traded the raves for the vines these days, but his creations live on in the ‘Mixed by DJ Deadly’ range – which also has a conveniently vibey playlist designed to match the wines! Listen along here.
2022 Paisley Wines ‘Mixed by DJ Deadly’ – Boombox Shiraz
- Majority shiraz with small amounts Grenache
- 14.9%
- Best 2025 – 2035
- Oz Wine Review, 92 Points: “There is zero subtlety about Derek ‘DJ Deadly’ Fitzgerald’s Barossan wines. That’s a very good thing. We need light and shade in our wine diet – boldness, delicacy, power, fragrance, and all the bits in between. Derek’s Paisley range falls into the bigger end of the spectrum, and proudly so. Barossan sunshine distilled into flavour and length… It has all the purple fruit swagger that a 14.9% Barossan red can offer. It’s full-bodied, with a thick, plummy berry wall of fruit flavour that hits warm and chunky but generous rather than hard. That generosity is important. Yes, we can’t escape the warmth and ripeness, and this 2022 Boombox Shiraz has a plum liqueur flash to finish, but it’s just part of the deal. It’s not what you’d call a complex wine either, with that flavour more about the mid-palate rather than a driving finish. Ultimately, this is a… wine, with the weight of something much more expensive, that proudly speaks of maker and region. A very good thing.”
2022 Paisley Wines ‘Mixed by DJ Deadly’ – Turntable GSM
- Derek calls this “Big G” for Grenache dominant: 49% Grenache, 33% Shiraz and 18% Mataro
- 14.7%
- Best 2025 – 2032
- Oz Wine Review, 92 Points: “Something right and good. Derek from Paisley Wines has a whole host of underpriced reds in his portfolio, and this Paisley Turntable GSM 2022 might be the best bargain of all. All Barossan fruit, in a ripe, plush, polished, squishy black and red fruit mode, all plushness and low acid. Black jelly beans, chocolate, smooth lines and no disguising the warmth. It’s bold, soft, and ripe with a glow of joyous and powerful red/black fruit and well-folded oak, occasionally looking too bold but unashamedly. A bargain.”
The Fabric Series
The second tier in the Paisley wine range pays homage to Kirsten’s ancestors who emigrated from Scotland to Adelaide in the 1800’s. The Fabric range celebrates the textile town of Paisley, near Glasgow.
2021 Paisley Wines Fabric Series – ‘Silk’ Shiraz
- 100% Shiraz
- 14.9%
- Best 2025 – 2032
- Sam Kim’s Wine Orbit, 94 Points: “Richly fruited and instantly appealing, the wine shows blackberry, cedary oak, toasted spice and rich floral aromas, followed by a generously expressed palate offering succulent fruit intensity with plump mouthfeel and plush tannins. Upfront and flavoursome, offering splendid drinking. At its best: now to 2036.”
2023 Paisley Wines Fabric Series – ‘Velvet’ Grenache
- 100% Grenache
- 14.5%
- Best 2025 – 2032
- Sam Kim’s Wine Orbit, 94 Points: “This is splendidly expressed and inviting on the nose, showing sweet plum, mixed spice, floral and hazelnut aromas. The palate delivers beautifully rounded mouthfeel, wonderfully supported by fleshy texture and fine, polished tannins. Flavoursome and delectable with a lingering soothing finish.”
The Texture Series (Single Vineyards)
At the very top of the Paisley wine range is the Texture Single Vineyard range of Shiraz. Each wine is produced the same way with 100% Shiraz from single vineyards in different parts of the Barossa, creating distinctly different wines and unique expressions.
2019 Paisley Wines Texture Series – Lyndoch Shiraz
- 100% Shiraz from Lyndoch in the Southern end of the Barossa
- 15%
- Best 2025 – 2040
- Sam Kim’s Wine Orbit, 96 Points
- Tyson Stelzer, 94 Points: “In ‘Tyson Stelzer’s Top 250 Australian Wines of 2024’: 100% shiraz from 90-year-old vines in Lyndoch in the southern Barossa Valley. Paisley’s single vineyard bottlings exemplify the diversity of Barossa terroir, and this is a beautiful take on the supple and endearing mood of Lyndoch in the south. Vines of more than 90 years of age have held their confidence, transcending the warmth of this drought vintage with a juicy core of red and black fruits, neatly framed in classy French oak.”
The Paisley Vineyards
Paisley Wines Estate Vineyard is 440m above sea level, directly above the town of Angaston in the northern end of the Barossa region.
Curiously, the dividing line between the Barossa Valley and the Eden Valley GIs falls perfectly over the top of the property and the classification of the vineyard site is Eden Valley. Customers will see the word “Barossa” on the Paisley wines, as this can be applied to wines made in both Barossa Valley and Eden Valley.
The vineyard’s total planting consists of 12 acres of 21+ year old Shiraz, 1.5 acres of Fiano and 3 acres of Mataro planted in 2019. Vineyards are made of Bluestone, sandstone and local rocks, Glen Traves.
The Paisley estate vineyard is made up of 3 blocks – The Road Block, the Town Block and the Sunset Block.
The block in front of the house is called the Road Block because it faces onto Hurns Road. This vineyard was planted to Shiraz in 2004. The fruit is used in the Mixed by DJ Deadly Boombox Shiraz and the Turntable GSM.
The block in front of the house is called the Road Block because it faces onto Hurns Road. This vineyard was planted to Shiraz in 2004. The fruit is used in the Mixed by DJ Deadly Boombox Shiraz and the Turntable GSM.
The Town Block is the block behind the house and if you rolled down the hill past the vineyard, you would end up in Angaston. This vineyard was planted in 2005. The Shiraz grown in this vineyard is used to produce the Boombox Shiraz and a small part is used for the Texture range Angaston Shiraz in the very best years.
The Sunset Block was named by Derek & Kirsten’s daughter as in the height of summer, the most spectacular sunsets can be observed from this hill. This vineyard was planted in 2019 with 1.5 acres of Fiano and 3 acres of Mataro.
Grenahe is sought from growers in the Southern end of the Barossa where the days are around 2C warmer. Grenache is a sun loving variety and slow to ripen. Old Vine Shiraz comes from the south and north in the Barossa Valley to add complexity to the Paisley range.
The Paisley Pets
(for our animal-loving pals out there)
(This blog writer can attest to the fact that there are few things better in the world than wine and pets, and I just know there are more of you out there that live for vineyard animal content! So this section is for you animal lovers, I see you!)
Derek, Kirsten and their daughter may be very important members of the Paisley estate, but there are many more hands, paws and hooves calling Paisley home! As well as winemaking, the Fitzgeralds are hobby farmers, with a small menagerie of pets on their Angaston property.
Kirsten and Derek love their animals – some are very helpful in the vineyard and some are just cute! When hosting guests at the winery, they find the animals to be an awesome entertainment factor for any kiddies in tow, with WineTourism.com calling it the Paisley Footprints Farm and Vineyard Family Experience.
