Phase Three Wines

Phase Three is a small, hands-on wine project based in the Barossa, started from scratch by a young family who moved to the region in 2018 with no local connections and no clear plan - just a strong interest in wine and a willingness to get involved wherever they could.

In their first year, they managed to land a vintage job at a small Barossa winery. Halfway through the season, someone asked if they were making any wine for themselves. That simple question kicked things off. With very little fruit available, they managed to find a small amount - 87kg of old vine Shiraz and 320kg of Chardonnay from Vine Vale - and made their first wines in 2019. That was the beginning of what would become the Dero label.

They weren’t trying to be clever with the name. “Dero” was just an honest nod to how things felt at the time - new to the region, doing odd jobs on the farm, often covered in dust and dirt, and very much on the outside of the Barossa wine scene.

The following year, they bought a property in Flaxman Valley, set up a small shed winery using bits and pieces from Gumtree and Marketplace, and kept asking around for grapes - leaving signs in the pub, making cold calls, chatting to people in the street. It worked. They scraped together five small parcels of Shiraz in 2020 and made six barrels of wine, which became the first proper release under the Dero name.

These days, Phase Three is the next step forward. Still small, still independent, still doing most things themselves - from picking fruit to pressing, bottling, and everything in between. The wines reflect that approach: made with care, not trying to be flashy, just honest expressions of the vineyards they work with and the effort they’ve put in to get here.