The rogue and ready winemaker converting bushies to Italian-style wines
Her Clare Valley label, Matriarch and Rogue, is what you’d call a one-man band, if any bloke had the capacity to work on it as hard as she does.
Official records are hard to find, but I’m reasonably confident Marnie Roberts holds the title for the greatest quantity of nero d’avola poured from within a cyclone fence cage on the Coober Pedy Oval. I was there to witness it.
There is a perception that selling wine is an endless swirl of polished crystal and prissy tasting dinners, but sometimes making money in this business requires a more egalitarian approach. Roberts is a winemaker who doesn’t bother with cuffs on her shirts because they’re permanently rolled up. Her Clare Valley label, Matriarch and Rogue, is what you’d call a one-man band, if any bloke had the capacity to work on it as hard as she does.
Having restored a rundown winery and cellar door in the historic township of Mintaro just in time for the challenging 2024 vintage, Roberts gave an afternoon to dreaming about taking a break before remembering that a small winemaker’s main job is selling the stuff. Not many would see the opportunity in the Coober Pedy Opal Festival, but with an unwavering belief that her place is where people are thirsty, Roberts packed her ute and headed north.
Next to a makeshift bar pushing crap beer, she poured her wines for a growing crowd. “Got any shiraz, love?” “Nope, maybe try montepulciano instead?” Plastic cup by plastic cup, Roberts opened minds. There was the prominent miner who whacked his cash on the bar and requested an open bottle be kept for him behind it. The local MP who bought several bottles for the wine they contained rather than the votes. And the young Indian guys who ran the petrol station who didn’t know they liked red wine until the first drop of nero d’avola passed their lips. No swirling or spitting. No tasting notes or points. Just great wine from a winemaker finding an audience because they bothered to look.
MADE BY MR BLANCO 2023
$25
The Made by MR wines are sourced from growers with whom Roberts works closely, and give her the chance to spread her wings. This blend of pinot blanc, riesling and pinot gris is effusively fresh and crunchy, hums with zesty citrus and finishes with a deft phenolic grip.
13% alcohol, 90 points
MADE BY MR NERO D’AVOLA 2022
$25
It’s wines like this, sourced from a great vineyard in SA’s Riverland, that are the future of Australia’s warmer inland wine regions. Beautifully fragrant and dusted with peppery spice, it’s a raspberry rippled wonder – juicy, supple and dangerously drinkable. Incredibly versatile, unbelievable value.
14% alcohol, 93 points
MATRIARCH AND ROGUE MONTEPULCIANO 2022
$35
The wines under the Matriarch and Rogue label, each named after family members of her grandparents’ generation, are Roberts’ love letter to both classic and contemporary Clare. Dry cherries and soft plums, a finely sculpted frame and supple tannins. Beautifully polished, medium bodied and effortlessly graceful.
14.5% alcohol, 91 points
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