Foreign Friends
Foreign Friends is a Beechworth project that started as a side hustle between three mates: sisters Leila and Crystal Davis, and their friend Juliette Menneteau. They’ve been part of the local wine scene in Beechworth for about a decade but only officially launched the label in 2023.
The business is a proper team effort with Leila handling the winemaking and grape-growing, Crystal running the marketing and branding, and Juliette looking after sales and distribution.
Leila’s background is about as Beechworth as it gets. She’s Rick Kinzbrunner’s great-grand-niece (Giaconda) and cut her teeth in the cellar with her uncle Pete Graham at Domenica and in the vineyard learning the farming with Barry Morey at Sorrenberg before heading overseas to work in the Jura and Beaujolais at Domaine Courbet and with Mee Godard. Not a bad crew of mentors to start you in the right direction!
While they’ve been buying fruit from the King and Yarra Valleys to get moving, the project is becoming more Beechworth-centric. Leila is now farming the Blacksprings vineyard, and they have a home block of Chardonnay and Nebbiolo coming online soon. It’s a "watch this space" situation as they move toward estate-grown fruit.
We really enjoyed each and every one of their current releases. Liela's clearly a talent to watch and one of the best young, emerging winemakers in Victoria. They are serious yet smashable, they look great, and each is wonderfully, distinctively varietal. We’ve put a four-pack together of our favourites if you want to see what this trio is all about.
