The Spanish tradition of making ‘clarete’ wines – red and white co-ferments that land somewhere between chilled reds, rosés, and skin-contact whites – has only recently come back from the brink of extinction. And Australia has already joined the party with this, our country’s first clarete – a quaffable, rose-scented delight of a wine that colours outside of the lines.
The Spanish tradition of making ‘clarete’ wines – red and white co-ferments that land somewhere between chilled reds, rosés, and skin-contact whites – has only recently come back from the brink of extinction. And Australia has already joined the party with this, our country’s first clarete – a quaffable, rose-scented delight of a wine that colours outside of the lines.
What happens when you treat two ‘alternative’ varieties with the same amount of reverence other makers would reserve for the noble chardonnay? If you’re Thistledown’s Giles Cooke, you get a serious – and seriously delicious – textural white.
Fresh, vibrant and light, yet layered with intricate detail, this wine is a joyous and approachable example of the genius of the late Peter Fraser – a champion of not only grenache, but also of lesser-known climate-apt varieties.
The fourth release of this variety from the biodynamic Yangarra, the surprisingly savoury, salty depth of this wine shows how quickly they have mastered this recent arrival.
This is a decidedly smashable and crunchy light red, all vibrant fruit with a little spicy herbal edge – but there’s some seriously clever winemaking technique at work under the hood here.
Everyone loves a comeback story, and with Pare Wine, Ansel Ashby is proving himself to be the Rocky Balboa of the South Australian wine scene. After having to shutter his first label, Gatch Wines, Ashby has returned with Pare – a new label in collaboration with wine merchant Andrew Williams. As the name suggests, Pare’s approach is all about minimalism, with their first release consisting of a compact collection of three single-site wines – two grenaches and a chardonnay –drawn from Adelaide Hills and McLaren Vale. Winemaking is minimal-intervention, allowing the fruit and terroir to speak clearly. With Pare, Ashby is proving that less is definitely more.
Sometimes it takes an outsider’s perspective to help articulate what makes something special – and Marcell Kustos of Lvdo Wines (pronounced ‘ludo’) has more than enough fresh angles from which to approach the subject of Australian wine. Born in Hungary to a family of viticulturists and winemakers, his formal education is in food technology and wine science, and his professional background is as a sommelier and wine director at some of Australia’s most lauded fine dining destinations (including Restaurant Botanic and Penfolds Magill Estate). He brings these perspectives to bear in the making of his Lvdo Wines label – a collection of four core wines (white, red, rosé and orange/amber) and some one-off project wines that pay homage to the great wines of Australia, with an outsider’s twist. Equally at home analysing Brix levels in must as he is selling his wines to the restaurant trade, Lvdo Wines demonstrates that Kustos is an unlikely renaissance man with new and interesting things to say about Australian wine.
Gonzalo Sánchez brings international flair to the McLaren Vale. After graduating from the winemaking school at Universidad Juan Agustina Maza in Mendoza, Argentina, he quickly racked up an impressive list of international whistle-stops, working vintages in California’s Napa Valley, Portugal’s Dão, and Germany’s Pfalz before finding his vinous forever home in Australia. Fresh off stints at iconic Australian producers Mount Langi Ghiran and Wirra Wirra, Sanchez took on the lead winemaker role at McLaren Vale’s Lloyd Brothers in 2021 – leading a significant change in the business’s operations, and sharpening its focus as a producer. Here he makes a number of wines from fruit sourced from Lloyd Brothers’ vineyards in the Vale and in the Adelaide Hills, ranging from the traditional – McLaren shiraz; Hills sauvignon blanc – to the unorthodox: a sparkling wine made from picpoul and prosecco; a shiraz and pinot noir blend inspired by Maurice O’Shea’s pioneering Hunter blends. As if this weren’t enough, he also squeezes in time to run an Australian–Argentinian wine brand, Sánchez M. (alongside his sister, Rocia), a vineyard, Los Aromos (with his wife, Kate), and a spirit brand, Tiny Friday. An irrepressible character within the Vale’s tight-knit winemaking community, Sánchez clearly has energy to burn and no shortage of ideas.
Please sign in or create account as candidate to bookmark this job
Please sign in or create account to save this search
Please sign in or create account as candidate to create a resume
