About The Wine
This is not your average wine. Actually, it's not even made from average wine grapes...
The variety Fragola is part of the vitis labrusca family, a different genus of grape to the widely planted vitis vinifera varieties that fill the bottle shop shelves. Fragola is grown primarily for its phylloxera resistant rootstock, but here it makes a psychedelic wine.
There is very little of it planted in the whole country. Only three short rows are available to Taras Ochota, which makes around two to three barrels. In his opinion, "The weirdest grapes I’ve worked with, the weirdest wine I’ve made", which is saying something...
Weirdness factor aside, this is seriously good to drink. Brimming with jubey fruit and fascinating flavours.
One for the experimental wine lovers out there.
About Ochota Barrels
The term “rockstar winemaker” gets thrown around a lot these days but Taras Ochota, owner/purveyor of cult wine label Ochota Barrels, is the real deal.
His grungy, minimalist attitude towards his label has seen him gain huge cult status internationally as one of the most boundary-pushing winemakers in Australia. From his home in the beautiful Basket Range of the Adelaide Hills, Taras and his wife Amber craft small batches of wine from surrounding vineyards in the Hills and special sites across McLaren Vale and the Barossa Valley. Taras picks earlier than most as a general rule, so expect lighter, more ethereal wines with freshness and 'tension' as a motif.
These are highly sought after and extremely limited wines which have a pulsating energy and drive to them. Some of the country's most exciting vinous creations, no doubt.
Basket Range, SA
From The Producer
Fragola is a very rare variety in Australia which is also known as Isabella or Odessa. A few canes smuggled from Calabria in the late eighties were planted to make family wine for an Italian family that settled to the Piccadilly Valley Adelaide Hills in the 1950’s.
It is the only vineyard that Taras has ever been in that you can actually smell the fruit down the row ….and that fruit is frijolas and strawberries.
Handpicked mid march
Destemmed berry fermentation for 5 days
Basket pressed to seasoned French barriques
Unfined and unfiltered
No additions besides 20ppm so2 at bottling
Blend : Fragola (100%)
ABV : 9.50%
Closure : Cork
Drink Until : 2024
Bottle Size : 750ml
Basket Range, SA
Critic Reviews
Bit tighter and more even paced than last year. Welch's grape soda, a fruit salad from the tropics. Guava, feijoa some purple jube lollies as the base notes. A slippery, glycerol mouthfeel. Juicy acidity and raspberry lollies. Hyper-coloured, flavour on warp speed, medium in body and strangely moreish. - Different Drop Wine Team
Delivery is Free for any order over $149 or more, or just $10 for any orders of $149 or less. There is no minimum order quantity and you can mix and match as much as you like. Make your perfect mixed pack!
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More FaQs: here
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