Red Wines

We’ve all dreamed of escaping our office jobs and buying a dilapidated house in the country to start a farm…well, that’s just what Donatella Giannotti and Bruno Carvi did in 1988. After a couple of years of commuting from Milan to a rare ‘undiscovered’ region of Piedmont and kitting the place out, they released their first wine in 1997, learning and growing with their close-knit team.

Fred Cline learned a love for farming from his grandfather Valeriano Jacuzzi at their ranch in Oakley. This area in Contra Costa County was a centre for immigrants who planted some of the original grapevines. After bringing these forgotten vines back to life, Fred and his friend Bobby Cannard developed The Green String method of “beyond sustainable” farming. Students at Green String learn how to respect the earth and respond to the needs of their environment as they raise food that brought health to local populations. So they preserve the past and protect the land for the future. We love them.

Blair and Caroline Guthrie are making honest wines, farmed responsibly. Their baby side project (only 600 cases a year) is filled with so much love – their wines are comforting and lighthearted as a Sunday morning dance party in your bathrobe. Beneath that, they are strongly focused on preserving and encouraging the good in the world – environmentally, ethically and everything in between

Swiss-born couple, Nicky and Gaby, started planting vines in Santa Lucia in the 1970s. Since then, they’ve got the area recognised as a wine region and have been at the forefront of the sustainability movement since before it was really a thing! A pretty pioneering bunch, the Hahn Family!

Chad and Bree Stock, a husband-and-wife team, have merged their superpowers and unique backgrounds in wine to create Ltd. +, which emerged as a collaboration with farmers in the area, inspired to develop a diverse and sustainable wine landscape. The wines, often made from less common grape varieties adopting innovative techniques, are changing preconceived notions of Oregon wine. 

Blair and Caroline Guthrie are making honest wines, farmed responsibly. Their baby side project (only 600 cases a year) is filled with so much love – their wines are comforting and lighthearted as a Sunday morning dance party in your bathrobe. Beneath that, they are strongly focused on preserving and encouraging the good in the world – environmentally, ethically and everything in between

They say, quite simply, that they are raising hand crafted wines along with their two daughters. But we think John & Tasha Seccombe are doing so much more than that! They’re raising the profile of forgotten grapes, reflecting on the heritage of a complicated wine producing country and thoughtfully capturing a new narrative of what that could become.

The very first winery in the Southern Hemisphere to farm using biodynamic practices, James and Annie Millton have stayed true to their practice since establishing The Millton Vineyard in 1984. Along their journey, they’ve raised a beautiful family. They’ve passed down their know-how to their children who now play key roles in some of Millton’s more avant-garde collections such as the “Crazy By Nature” which is some of our favourite juice!

Minimus started as the experimental arm of Craft Wine Company. It is where the winemaker can bottle her experiments each year. Some bottles were good enough to be produced every year, others are one offs - and numbered according to which experiment number it is.

This tiny operation, started in 2007 by the spirited Sardinian Antonio Berritta, operates out of the basement of a grocery store. Antonio, his wife Maria Paola and their kids, Serena and Francesco are all involved in the operations of the winery – under the meticulous direction of the grandkids. Antonio’s family has been cultivating olives and vines using traditional methods for generations. This stuff really is in their blood!

Blair and Caroline Guthrie are making honest wines, farmed responsibly. Their baby side project (only 600 cases a year) is filled with so much love – their wines are comforting and lighthearted as a Sunday morning dance party in your bathrobe. Beneath that, they are strongly focused on preserving and encouraging the good in the world – environmentally, ethically and everything in between

The brainchild of three, classically trained wine geeks, coming together with one common goal- to produce wine with maximum love and minimal intervention. The trio, Matthew, Glenn and Alex met during their oenology and viticulture studies before deciding to kick off their own brand, Blood Moon in 2014. At their core, they believe in making wines that are expressive of time and place. Their first pressing happened on April 15th 2014, after dark under a blood orange moon. How romantic is that!

The name says it all, really. Stand Alone is the passion project of 2nd generation winemaker, Xander Grier of Stellenbosch’s Villiera. He’s taking the reins and doing his own thing with grapes he loves while holding true to Villiera’s deep commitment to sustainability.

The first generation of three generations of grape growers in sunny McLaren Vale to branch off and start their own wine label. Hither and Yon is the story of two brothers who wanted to see their region grow more varietals that were better suited to their land than what the big wine labels of South Australia were thirsty for.

GAMAY NOIR by Stand Alone
Gummiberry juice, ripe cherries and oregano

CHATEAU GUTHRIE by Guthrie Family Wines
Cherries in dark rum and Christmas cake (the kind you actually like)

THURCALESU by Berritta
Baked caramel apples, raspberry, rosemary

This tiny operation, started in 2007 by the spirited Sardinian Antonio Berritta, operates out of the basement of a grocery store. Antonio, his wife Maria Paola and their kids, Serena and Francesco are all involved in the operations of the winery – under the meticulous direction of the grandkids. Antonio’s family has been cultivating olives and vines using traditional methods for generations. This stuff really is in their blood!

So much of our approach to wine has been inspired by Pieter Walser and his BLANKbottle wines – where the bottles typically don’t show the varietal to avoid any preconceived ideas about what people think they like and don’t like when it comes to wines. “You can’t judge it by the label; it takes drinking a whole bottle to get to know the wine.” He also designs those labels.

Baby-brother brand to Sokol Blosser, this started as a project to continue releasing wines when a nasty pest called phylloxera wiped out most of their vineyards. Through luck and intention, it has evolved (see what we did there?) into a brand in it’s own right under siblings & co-presidents Alison & Alex Sokol Blosser.