“I have a few colleagues who are very particular about the way they think wine should be made… When we released our first wine, in 2012, we had no idea what we were going to call it, and someone at work said to me, ‘the way you make wine is the wrong way’, and I said, … Continue reading ‘Learn The Rules’ – The Other Right, South Australia
“The grape supplies everything that’s needed,” says Stan Ivanov, winegrower at Mill About Vineyard, in the Barossa Valley, South Australia. “It supplies its own yeast and enzymes to help with fermentation, the bacteria necessary for malolactic fermentation is also there, and so is all the acid and tannin. So, what else do I need?” Stan, and … Continue reading Something Good – Mill About Vineyards, Barossa Valley, S.A.
“One of the weaknesses of Australian wine is that many producers try to be all things to every body, and when you do that you tend to lose focus,” says Peter Fraser, Manager and Chief Winemaker at Yangarra Estate, in the McLaren Vale, South Australia. The first vines to be planted at Yangarra were back … Continue reading ‘From The Earth’ – Yangarra Estate, McLaren Vale, S.A.
“I came from a winemaking background where I’d make one hundred, to one million litre tanks of chardonnay at a time,” says Taras Ochota from Ochota Barrels, in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. A student of oenology at Adelaide University, Taras and his partner Amber travelled the surf breaks of California, Mexico, Portugal and France, and … Continue reading ‘Turning the Screws’ – Ochota Barrels, Adelaide Hills
“What’s your name?” “Yow mah.” “Sorry, I didn’t understand what you just said… can you repeat that?” “Yow mah! It’s your fucking name in Catalan!” When James Erskine was travelling through Spain, he met a winemaker called Jauma (‘yow mah’), who was making wine with grenache, or rather garnacha. Unlike the beastly boozers from his … Continue reading What’s Your Name? – Jauma, Adelaide Hills, S.A.
“In the new world, everyone talks about winemakers, like they’re heros,” says Hans Herzog, owner and vigneron at Hans Herzog Estate in Marlborough, New Zealand, “but we should be talking about the vineyard, and winegrowing, because that’s where wine really comes from.” Hans thinks of himself as a vigneron, a French term for someone who … Continue reading A Whole New World – Hans Herzog Estate, Marlborough N.Z.
“The first batch of wine we made was just so that we had something to drink…”, says winegrower Wayne Ahrens, from his family home in the Barossa Valley, “It was a small barrel of cabernet which we made at home”. Wayne is a fifth generation grape farmer in Australia’s pre-eminent winegrowing region, the Barossa Valley, where … Continue reading ‘Get Out Of The Bloody Way!’ – Small Fry Wines, Barossa SA.
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