Wines that add fun to the Fringe
Fringe and festival season is a time to experiment, push boundaries, and move through the world with adventure in your heart (and glass). Give these wild things a whirl.
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Fringe and festival season is a time to experiment, push boundaries, and move through the world with adventure in your heart (and glass). Give these wild things a whirl.
WORLDS APART WINES
2019 / BLEWITT SPRINGS Grenache
Adelaide Hills
When he’s not connecting bar flies with some of
the best booze in the business, Hellbound Wine Bar co-owner Louis Schofield can usually be found helping Taras Ochota (Ochota Barrels) make the good stuff in the Adelaide Hills. Worlds Apart Wine is Schofield’s own brand, and his grenache is one to note. It’s a fresh and endearingly herbaceous flavour bomb. Think thyme, rosemary and gazpacho. The fruit was sourced from the Blewitt Springs Moritz vineyard, managed by Dave Gartelmann. Find it at the likes of East End Cellars and Hellbound.
$39
HILLS COLLIDE
2019 / Light Red
Adelaide Hills (Kuitpo)
Great things can happen when stellar people collide. Winemaker Mitch Fitzpatrick and Proof wine bar co-owner Shane Ettridge make fruit-forward, delightfully smashable booze and this dolcetto is no exception. The variety originally hails from Italy but small amounts are found on local turf. This fruit (50 per cent whole bunch) was sourced from Kuitpo (where the wild things are) and spent about 20 days on skins. More fun than the influx of acrobats on Tinder during festival season.
$30
BRAVE NEW WINE
2019 / Mates & Lovers Pet Nat
Denmark, Western Australia
Ever hit the Fringe Club dance floor and emerged hours later, breathless, dazzled, covered in sweat (not yours) and glitter clogging your pores? This is equally mischievous. Wife and hubby team Yoko Luscher-Mostert and Andries Mostert make small batches of lovingly made lo-fi wine. This fun fizz has zero additives and is best shared with mates (and lovers). Convivial at heart, it’s a pinot gris explosion of cherry, lemon, and a hint of sarsaparilla. Pet nat done right.
$32
SOMOS WINES
2019 / Somos Biodynamically Farmed Vermentino
MCLaren Vale
Love texture? Look no further. Layers of citrus, spice, melon and herb flavours keep coming. Winemakers Ben Caldwell and Mauricio Ruiz Cantú make wines they love to drink. Somos means “we are” in Spanish and the hand-plucked biodynamic fruit in this aromatic humdinger was gently basket pressed straight into old French barriques and fermented wild (with plenty of skin contact and nine months of ageing on gross lees). The label by local indigenous artist Amanda Westley is special, too.
$37
GLEN EWIN ESTATE
Pot & Still Fig Gin
Adelaide Hills
Glen Ewin Estate’s Lower Hermitage property is home to 12,000 fig trees and at this time of year (fig-picking season) hordes of people flock to pluck them from fruit-laden boughs. Some of the tasty, fruity hand grenades make their way into the Pot & Still Fig Gin (which tastes of figs … no surprises there). Bang some soda water in there (don’t add tonic – it’ll drown out the flavour), a bit of mint, and let the good times roll. Available at the Glen Ewin Estate cellar door and at East End Cellars in Adelaide’s CBD.
$70
ADELAIDE HILLS DISTILLERY
78˚ WOMADgin
Adelaide Hills
Adelaide Hills Distillery founder Sacha La Forgia isn’t afraid to push boundaries (his green ant gin is a highlight) and this creation has UK music festival WOMAD’s roots at heart – with a twist that represents its current home in Adelaide’s Botanic Park.
The gin was made using Australian botanicals; juniper, coriander, blood lime, lemon myrtle, pepper berry and spice. It’s delicious and available in limited quantities. Or, if you’re looking for a beverage that actually tastes like WOMAD, give the Adelaide Hills Distillery Dry Vermouth a whirl. It’s Bob Marley in a bottle.
$75