20 May 2020. Words by Louis Schofield.
While some restrictions are being eased, the days of piling into your local pub, packed to the rafters, or pulling up the last free stool at your favourite wine bar are some way off. Given that we’ll all still be taking most of our drinks at home, we’ll keep bringing you the go-to house beverages of drink gurus nationwide. This time, it’s Louis Schofield – from Adelaide’s Hellbound and Worlds Apart Wines – taking his turn at the tiller.
It’s Autumn here at our house in the Adelaide Hills, the best time of year. We’ve finished making wine for the year; all the barrels are topped and sitting quietly in the winery. The trees are changing colour; the fire is lit and the bushwalks are superb. Lockdown means we are cooking (my partner Hannah is an amazing chef) and gardening and not much else. There is also a fair bit of breast milk around here at the moment, but I don’t like drinking it. Here is what we are drinking…
Batch-Made Cocktails – Negroni
Firstly, get yourself a business partner (in my case, it’s Mark ‘Reggie’ Reginato) who is a boutique spirits distributor, judge and guru of all things cocktails. If not, you’ll have to batch up your own and just keep them in the freezer. Negroni (equal parts MGC Gin, Maidenii Classic Vermouth and Campari, with a dash of grapefruit bitters) and martini are my go-tos. Just pour your pre-made deliciousness into a glass and throw the appropriate garnish on top. Formal dinner wear optional.
2018 Domaine de l’Anglore ‘Nizon’ Grenache ($85)
We eat a lot of Middle Eastern, South-East Asian and Mediterranean kinda food. Aromatic, fresh, delicious. So, the wines we drink tend to follow suit. I love light-bodied grenache: l’Anglore (Eric Pfifferling), Ochota Barrels, Rayas (yeah, like I have loads of Rayas at home!). We do also drink our own wine a fair bit – is that bad?
De Groot Coffee Co. Coffee Beans (400g, $29)
Our dear friend gave us a Moccamaster coffee maker before he returned to Copenhagen last year, and we love it. It has been getting a serious workout while we’ve been homebound. I try and get locally roasted, fair trade beans from our favourite coffee shops to give them some support. I feel like the defining question of lockdown is, “Is it too late to drink coffee, or is it too early to drink wine?”
![]()
2019 Gentle Folk ‘Little Creek’ Pinot Noir ($60)
Gareth and Rainbo Belton have released their best wines to date. This is a brilliant journey from making quaffable natural wine to top tier single vineyard pinot noir and chardonnay. I feel super lucky to have closely followed a few makers like Gentle Folk in South Australia over the last decade. Also, the Little Creek vineyard is owned by one of the great food and wine personalities of the Adelaide Hills, Nigel Hopkins. It’s about halfway between our house and Gentle Folk.
Woodford Reserve Bourbon (700ml, $55)
I bloody love bourbon. I’m not a snob about it – Jim Beam out of the fridge door is fine. But at the moment, I’ve got a Woodford Reserve open. Admittedly, it is a better drink. I drink it out of Riedel ‘O’ whisky tumblers, which are a delight. In fact, one of the few benefits of having a wine bar is always having nice glassware at home. Almost makes up for how much we have to spend replacing broken ones at Hellbound!
Louis Schofield is a former retailer/sommelier/wine rep, with 10 years in the trade. He is the assistant winemaker at Ochota Barrels, and makes wine under his own label, Worlds Apart Wines, while also co-owning Adelaide’s iconoclastic Hellbound wine bar.
