Description
- 2025 Foreign Friends Alice Chenin Blanc
- 2025 Foreign Friends Jeanne Savagnin
- 2025 Foreign Friends Anna Gamay
- 2025 Foreign Friends Hilma Barbera
2025 Foreign Friends Alice Chenin Blanc
This is a brand new cuvee from Foreign Friends - a Beechworth-based project from sisters Leila and Crystal and their friend Juliette. They’ve been a part of the local wine community for a decade, launching their own label in 2023 to showcase varietally true wines from across the High Country. This release, named 'Alice', is their first crack at Chenin Blanc - let's go!
The fruit was crushed and pressed before being fermented and aged on lees in a mix of stainless steel and neutral oak. This combination is key; the steel keeps the fruit vibrant while the old wood and lees contact build a supple, succulent texture. The winemaking on display across the board from this project is very thoughtful and very impressive.
It's pretty open and playful on the nose, with some tropics and white flowers alongside more savoury hits of flint, wet stone, and dry sage. The pallet is dry and with good thrust - full of stone fruit and citrus, but there’s also a saline, green almond edge that keeps things interesting.
A favourite of ours in this range and a great sign for Victorian Chenin Blanc!
95 points
"Victorian chenin blanc is a bit of a rarity but not for too much longer, not if this little beauty of a wine is any indication. It is the full package."
- Jeni Port (Halliday Wine Companion)
2025 Foreign Friends Jeanne Savagnin
Savagnin in the right hands is always going to turn heads, and considered our heads well and truly turned with this ripper! Foreign Friends continues to impress, and since launching in 2023 they’ve produced wines with real personality and approachability.
The winemaking here for 'Jeanne' was all about building layers - as is the way with quality Savagnin. The grapes were cold-soaked on skins before a wild ferment in old French barriques, followed by ten months of ageing on lees. This time in wood and on lees has given the wine a gently creamy, nutty mealiness and a depth of flavour that sets it apart from more straightforward whites.
The nose is super aromatic, showing ginger spice, peach, and nectarine alongside an assortment of florals. The palate is where it's at though - focused and driven with juicy fruits but serious texture and structure.
A complex wine that gives you all the interest of this variety without losing freshness and drinkability. Bravo!
94 points
"Another top release of a wine that excites the palate, combining complexity, a lingering savouriness and a juicy freshness. It makes for a most charming and un-put-down-able wine."
- Jeni Port (Halliday Wine Companion)
2025 Foreign Friends Anna Gamay
A cracking little modern Aussie red here from the talented trio at Foreign Friends in Beechworth. For 'Anna', they’ve headed to the Yarra Valley to find the right parcel of Gamay, a variety that's playing an increasingly important part if Victorian viticulture.
The winemaking here is very deliberate and keeps the primary fruit flavours at the forefront. They used about 25% whole bunches during a two-week ferment on skins to add a bit of structure and spice, before the wine was tucked away in large, neutral oak over winter and spring. The use of larger format wood works wonders with this variety, retaining all of its purity and just adding that lick of texture, without weight.
It’s a ripe and sweet-fruited expression of the variety, led by raspberry, cherry, and plum. There’s some nice complexity too, with floral and herbal hints, but really it's just a delicious easy-going light red that wouldn't mind a chill.
2025 Foreign Friends Hilma Barbera
Foreign Friends is a Beechworth-based project from sisters Leila and Crystal and their friend Juliette. They’ve been part of the local wine scene for a decade, eventually launching this label in 2023 to focus on honest, varietally expressive wines. While they are based in Beechworth, they look to standout sites across the High Country for their fruit, sourcing the grapes for this 'Hilma' Barbera from the King Valley.
The fruit here was fully destemmed and spent two weeks on skins before being tucked away in large, old French oak for the winter and spring. This approach has kept the fruit front and centre while rounding out the edges, giving it the soft, velvety texture that gives good Barbera its charm.
It’s a medium-bodied, juicy red that carries a bit of weight and concentration without feeling heavy.
On the nose, you get blueberry and bramble fruit mixed with clove and even a hint of dark chocolate. The palate is medium-bodied and juicy, and more savoury as it opens up. It finishes with fine tannins and a plesant sourness that has you going back for another glass!
It’s drinking well now but has the structure to sit in the cellar for a few years if you can wait.
95 points
"Seduces in a deep world of red cherries, ripe redcurrant, blackberry, dried herbs, florals, chocolate and spice with a red earthiness."
- Jeni Port (Halliday Wine Companion)
| Price Bracket | $31 to $40 |
| Country | Australia |
| Region | King Valley |
| Australian State | VIC |
| Feature |
Women in Wine |
| Size | 8 |
| Closure | DIAM Cork |
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