Radny’s stint at Vue de Monde lasted for three and a half years followed by food and beverage manager roles in prominent restaurant groups. The rest of his resumé is dotted with experience in Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Japan over a 15-year career.
The first trial wine was made from a tonne of pinot noir in 2018, when Radny was head sommelier at Jackalope Hotel on the Mornington Peninsula. “It was brought about by wanting an exit strategy from the hospo scene, and I fell in love with seeing a wine come together from budburst to bottle!” The following year, he purchased 5 tonnes of fruit with the intention of packaging it in an alternative format, but without the equipment, that wine went to bottle.
“All I want to make are wines that make you say, ‘OH YUM!’ as you screw up your face in disbelieving pleasure when you put them in your mouth! The wines are made to be drunk, partied with and enjoyed. To this day, I think we’re the most avant-garde of the alt-packed wines in Australia.”
That was firmly against Radny’s strategy, who was intent on not just being another sommelier with a niche wine label. He notes that he was down on himself for a while about swelling those ranks, so he committed to making the 2020 vintage solely for casks. “I decided to take on the alt-packaging world. This was a major marker for me in making the wines stand out, being different, crazy and a little misguided,” he says.
Those wines were never meant to be profound, but Radny was aiming for high quality with a heavy emphasis on drinkability. “All I want to make are wines that make you say, ‘OH YUM!’ as you screw up your face in disbelieving pleasure when you put them in your mouth! The wines are made to be drunk, partied with and enjoyed. To this day, I think we’re the most avant-garde of the alt-packed wines in Australia.”
It’s that packaging that really helps to separate the Gonzo Vino wines in the market, Radny says. “Gonzo is in its infancy, and during this phase, it’s about challenging ideas of what wine is, and how it can be enjoyed. All we do is 3-litre bag-in-box, cans and kegs. Yes, we don’t filter or fine the wines, use less sulphur and purchase organically grown grapes, but it’s the packaging that sets us apart. It allows us to sit in a price bracket lower than wines of the same calibre and offer great bang for your buck.”
“My hard and fast rules for the wines are that all the whites need deliberate and extended skin time to help develop more flavour and texture. This is especially true for the Italian and Istrian varieties. And two, that all the reds need way less extraction than I initially thought. This brings more verve, energy and instant drinkability to them.”
The alternative packaging does provide some challenges, with Radny noting that the image of cask wine still has a long way to go before it is fully rehabilitated. But, with dynamic packaging, a quality-first approach and significant green credentials, that may only be a matter of time before the cask is seen in a more favourable light. Those environmental gains include significant reductions in product weight and associated reductions in energy use and greenhouse gasses.
Radny boasts no formal training in winemaking or viticulture but acknowledges “some very talented people who were very generous with their time” over his so-far brief winemaking career. “We span two states and two great regions. Riverland for the fruit, with Ash Ratcliff being a source of incredible fruit and mentorship, and the Western Vic regions where there are a rag-tag bunch of people always willing to lend a hand and give advice. I love meeting and working with all these weirdos.”
Gonzo Vino is based out of Ron Snep’s winery at his Welshmans Reef Vineyard. “Making the wines in Welshmans Reef allows us to make wines in a really garage-style, with all the toys at our disposal,” says Radny. “There’s a romantic rusticity about the region for making wine.”
That garage approach sees the skin contact turned up on the whites and down on the reds. “My hard and fast rules for the wines are that all the whites need deliberate and extended skin time to help develop more flavour and texture. This is especially true for the Italian and Istrian varieties. And two, that all the reds need way less extraction than I initially thought. This brings more verve, energy and instant drinkability to them.”
The Riverland fruit from Ashley Ratcliff represents one of the best value to quality ratios you’ll find anywhere in Australia, believes Radny. “The array of grapes that he grows is amazing and the quality is outstanding. The grapes that I choose from the Riverland are not always the go-to that one would think of. I use chardonnay and riesling for example… but grown well, and handled in the right way, these wines absolutely shine.”
The key has been to pick early to retain natural acidity, but due to the premium viticulture and lower crop loads, as compared to a typical Riverland grower, Radny says that the fruit has good flavour development at an earlier stage. “We are asking for the fruit to be picked earlier and earlier so we can have more energy, tension and verve in the wines, even in heat-affected years.”
Along with more traditional varieties, including such anonymous varieties like petit verdot and muscat of alexandria (rebranded as zibibbo, the Sicilian synonym), emerging varieties are a large part of the Gonzo Vino portfolio, including vermentino, fiano and tinta barroca. “We’re lucky that Ash is growing and championing drought-resistant varieties, and working to grow more than ever. This is going to help future-proof the brand’s source for a long time to come.”
While there are a dozen lines currently, Radny says that the future of Gonzo Vino is in specialising. “I have been playing with the idea of working with high-quality regions and fruit, such as Yarra cabernet or Macedon pinot noir and making them into 1.5-litre boxes for a slightly more premium offering. The original range will continue, but will probably be smaller in variety choice, but making more of the most popular wines.”
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