Ochota Barrels "Texture Like Sun"

Grapes: Pinot Noir + Mourvedre + Grenache + Gewurztraminer + Gamay + Fragola + Chardonnay

Region: Adelaide Hills, Australia

Vintage: 2020

Viticulture: Organic

Soils: Clay over limestone

Yeasts: Indigenous

Vinification: The fruit was hand-picked throughout February and early March with only the best fruit being used. The clusters were kept separate and cold soaked for a few days then fermentation kicked off naturally. Toward the finale of primary fermentation the Gewürztraminer skins were tossed into the Pinot Noir and Meunier ferments. The fruit was hand plunged multiple times a day over the course of two weeks prior to being basket-pressed to old French barriques for aging.

Aging: Two months of aging then blended the wines to tank to settle

Fining or Filtering: None

Notes from the Importer: The label may be completely illegible with its utterly lurid and almost painful yellow label. “That’s the idea”, said Taras back in 2018. “It’s something in a clear bottle, released in Spring, nothing to hide, yummy”. This wine has always been about the result and not the components, with each vintage changing quite a bit in the ‘how’s’ and ‘what’s’. The name of the wine is taken from lyrics from the song ‘Golden Brown’ by The Stranglers as it was the song Taras and Amber danced to at their wedding. This vintage sees basically all of the Adelaide Hills fruit being used, due to the catastrophic wildfires in the Hills. That said, is a shining moment for sure of the vintage and a sublime wine, though sadly 2020 was bookended with tragedy of the Wildfires early on and Taras’ battle with illness toward the end of the year, which resulted in his last dance to ‘Texture Like Sun’.