Maverick Adelaide Hills winemaker Taras Ochota dies after long battle with illness
The wine world has lost one of its finest after the death of Adelaide Hills winemaker, Taras Ochota.
Food & Wine
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The wine world is mourning the loss of “one of its finest” after the death of Adelaide Hills winemaker and one-time punk rocker Taras Ochota.
He died after a long battle with illness.
Friend, fellow winemaker and US band Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan announced the sad news via Twitter.
“We lost a good one today. Taras Ochota, Ochota Barrels in Adelaide Hills, SA, Australia. Godspeed, Taras. This truly sucks,” he wrote.
Ochota was a winemaker with a punk attitude, a big heart and an adventurous spirit.
The Ochota Barrels story began in late 2000.
“Amber had been working in London, I was working in California and we bought a little Kombi, drove to Mexico and came up with this idea to make our own handmade, small-batch wines,” Taras said during a vertical tasting of his Ochota Barrels Fugazi Vineyard Grenache in 2019.
The pair cut their wine industry teeth all over the globe, finally settling in Basket Range and pursuing their dream.
They made their savoury, textural drops using fruit sourced from biodynamic and organic vineyards and the fruit picked based on natural acidity.
Ochota bucked trends, carved his way through an industry steeped in tradition, and was a pioneer of minimal intervention winemaking. He has won a number of awards including Young Gun of Wine 2012-2013, and his cracking portfolio of thoughtfully made wines are coveted worldwide.
“They’re grown organically and we don’t add lots of nasties,” he said.
“It’s really just about trying to make something that tastes nice. And about creativity and friendship.”
Despite being referred to as a rock star winemaker, he would rather talk about his beloved young family, surfing, music or wine than winemaker pedestals.
Besides, rock stars come in many shapes and forms. Punk music pumped through Taras’s veins (he played bass in Adelaide band Kranktus and counted high profile musos as friends), but it was his down-to-earth nature that earned him a right to the hype.