2021 Ochota Barrels ‘Green Room’, Grenache | McLaren Vale, Australia

Varietal: 81-year old vines of Grenache Noir from Grancari Vineyard in Onkaparinga Hills

Vineyard Management: Certified organic

Winemaking: Native yeast fermentation in open top fermenters, partial whole cluster, aged 5 months in old French barrique

Typicity: Typical, and yet, singular.

Bio: Taras and Amber Ochota decided to head back to Australia for good to found  Ochota Barrels after a month’s long surfing trip to Mexico. By this time in their lives, Taras had racked up several vintages across several continents as a flying winemaker. In 2008, they set up a tiny winery in Basket Range, a small sub-region within the Adelaide Hills, and set themselves to making organically grown wine with minimal intervention. At the time, almost no one was doing this in Australia. Their zeal and sincerity turned out to be infectious—Adelaide Hills is now a hotbed for organic, low intervention wineries.

Their wines are precise, youthful, and imbued with a grace that only comes from deft hands. Taras preferred to be of ‘the beautiful wine movement’ rather than the ‘natural wine movement’. With his passing in 2020, his wife and children, Sage and Anouk, carry on with what they built together. 

2021 is Amber’s first vintage without Taras—and it’s just as ethereal as ever. I look forward to her own voice shining through in the coming vintages. Chill to serve.