2021 • 12.6% Alc • Mount Compass, SA
Around an 80/20 split in favour of Chardonnay. All direct pressed and barrel fermented in 500L barrels. Somewhat more weight and power than previous iterations, all kept in check by Savagnin’s amazing acidity. Lime splice, with a generous long and quenching palate. We like this, a lot. (This wine used to be called ‘Battered Sav’, but we’ve had enough of people assuming it was Sav Blanc… hence the wildly creative name.)
2021 • 11.5% Alc • Mount Compass, SA
A Pinot Noir dominate blend, with Pinot Gris and Chardonnay blended for length and focus. This is the second release of this wine, extra time in bottle has done wonders. I am going to directly quote our friend Amanda Smeltz - New York wordsmith and wine mind extraordinaire: 'Total heartbreaker of a new one from the champs outta the Adelaide Hills. Elegant, darker style of rosé or light red, or whatever - Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Chardo all together. Reminds me of L’anglore but prettier.'
2022 • 10.8% Alc • Mount Compass, SA
BEST ONE EVER! Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Savagnin. Poor flowering from wet and wild spring resulted in bugger all Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. We have a Chardonnay dominant blend this year with a lick of Savagnin for spine and aromatic lift. Despite that, look at the colour, such a vibrant, pretty pink! Drinks SO easy, firmly in the pink (real) lemonade zone. This one really makes us smile, hope you do too!
2021 • 12.1% Alc • Blewitt Springs, SA
Our friend Lisanne (Boaz, Sonshine, De Sonnettes), pre-COVID worked with Lulu’s Cab Franc, since then we have been fortunate enough to slide in and make some wine from it. Old vines on sand with one of the best vistas in Blewitt Springs. 100% carbonic for 2 weeks, keeping things feather weight, whilst enhancing all that beguiling blue fruit Franc holds. Finishes with a bees dick of Franc-y rusticity that dissipates in time, whilst retaining strong varietal character.
2022 • Hopped Piquette • 4% Alc
Your favourite not beer is back! This year we had a meagre crop of hops, so when our mate Lotti asked if we wanted freshly picked ones, we jumped! This years version was made essentially the same as last years - fresh pressed Sav Blanc skins, crystalline Basket Range spring water and fresh hops. Perfect fizz, and only 4% alcohol. Passionfruit, pineapple, refreshment! A real west coast cooler vibe. THE perfect knock off.
Australia • 17.2% Alc
Cantaria, an Australian Vermouth. Bright, fresh, perfectly sweet. Citrus driven with a flurry of herbs from the garden and a dash of native aromatics. This was a while in the making, came full circle in the end. Initial blends were far more into the amaro, bitter world. The final result takes more cues from the Vermut bars of Barcelona, something to relax with, to whet the appetite. Cue the Pa amb tomàquet & anchoa! carbonic Cabernet Sauvignon from the 2021 vintage, fortified at 3 baumé (around the same amount of sugar as a 600ml Farmers Union Iced Coffee - for comparison), aromats steeped in grape spirit and blended in April 2022. Serve cold and neat, over ice, or as a spritz with Pash Rash®.
Chilled Red • 11.4% Alc
Previous iterations have been either rosé or pseudo rosé. This time we’re firmly in the light/chilled red/park wine zone. Crunchy, Cloudy, Bright red fun time wine. Lots of things going on, but for me to rattle them all off would be missing the point. Chill it down, roll out the rug… GO!
2021 • 10.8% Alc • Mount Torrens, SA
We love Sangiovese, big ones, fizzy ones, light ones… so good. The Swan song (also an underrated Carcass record) for this particular wine (vines are no longer with us) but hopefully not the last time for us and Sangiovese to mingle
again. This
is 100% whole bunch (I see a theme here) locked down for a week, zero forced extraction.
Bright and clear garnet. The nose is all blue fruited Sangio with this underlying yeasty vibe (good, trust me). Basically smells like the ferment did, healthy! This sits in the light and BRIGHT zone, pretty with great acidity holding it
all
together. Surely a pizza wine, but not just a pizza wine. LOVE Sangiovese!
2021 • 11.7% Alc • The Range, SA
Below are notes taken, after running out of the shower to jot down thoughts about this wine. We could embellish, but you get the drift, yeah?
Tropical Berocca-esque golden hues; Terrigal beach 2004, seaweed on the beach; Golden Pash, tropical juice; Pine lime, set me off ; Roll down the skillion, grass in your hair.
100% whole bunch carbonic Chardonnay. 14 days locked in a tank, then pressed gently to another to finish fermentation, then to barrel for a long rest. Reductive and tight, this wine has a Chardonnay core. It's tropical elements enhanced
through
carbonic fermentation. A nice cut of acidity to keeps it all together.
We’ve had this with SPICY AF food during vintage and it kept pace. Feels like day 3, or even 5, is the window for this one, but live your life. Don’t serve too cold. Your standard gross-red-wine temp works best and a firm decant doesn’t
hurt either.
2021 • 10.8% Alc
Pinot Noir + Pinot Gris + Chardonnay - foot stomped and pressed.
It’s like, they start off as a nice-enough kid, a little rough and tumble. Then, they get into punk, 6 shots of mezcal and a fist full of acid. Don’t like it? Your problem! Eventually they tone it down, with that disruptive heart still beating strong, energy at any cost. These days, they seem to have found some balance in life, maybe half a dozen oysters and a glass of something nice isn’t so bad. A little bitterness still lives back there. So, fuck the suits, AMIRITE!?
2020 • 11.8% Alc
75% Chardonnay + 25% Savagnin - whole bunch pressed, some co-fermentation, fermented to nearly dry, then to barrel for a rest.
We all fantasise, we all have dreams. Tasting this wine, I’m under Norfolk Island pine and there’s a refreshing ocean breeze, and the taste of salt in the air. There’s someone shucking oysters directly into my mouth and I’m drinking this exact wine from the bottle. With a straw. Nothing matters and I couldn’t care less about anything but right now. Life is cool and balanced. One day.
2020 • 12.6% Alc
Whole bunch pressed, fermented to nearly dry, then to barrel for a rest.
For whatever reason I’ve always been drawn to the salty side of life, maybe growing up on a peninsula, being naughty kids hooning around in tinnies, going fishing, getting as much hot chips as you had loose change, ripping oysters of the rocks... yeah makes perfect sense when I write it down.
AGES ago, Alicia and I used to get Fish and Chips and head down to a spot next to Wamberal lagoon. We’d get your classic fish cocktail and chips and if a dole/royalty cheque had come through I’d splash out on some crumbed scallops, in all their sweet and salty glory, with a proper lemon squash to wash it down. Good times.
2020 • 11.2% Alc
Whole bunch pressed, fermented to nearly dry, then to barrel for a rest.
Fond of sand dunes and salty air, quaint little villages here and there? If you’ve been to Mungo Brush on the NSW coast you might picture massive dunes and remember ripping the trucks of a skateboard deck to slide down the monsters. I guess I’d seen people do it with ‘For Sale’ signs and assumed my classic Powell Peralta deck would do the trick. It didn’t. Copped a face full of sand. Textural and memorable. Hey, how about that view?!
2020 • 12% Alc
Merlot + Pinot Grigio - 100% carbonic for a week and a bit.
When I was a kid, Dad used to make a lot of different jams. He’d start early and you’d wake up to the aroma of a bubbling pot of fruit wafting through the house. If you timed it right, there would be a plate in the fridge to see if the pectin was setting right. A family friend had an orchard so lots of stone fruit got a look in, particularly plums. My favourite was always strawberry, that confected thing that happens when you cook them down - so good. Anyway... maybe you’d smear that on some toast and chase it wth a black tea with just enough sugar to take the edge off. A tightrope of bitter and sweet and acid and... YUM!
2020 • 11.2% Alc
Free run drained to barrel, off a whole bunch ferment.
I’ve walked through some spice markets, never one in Morocco, but I imagine if you skirted around the edges of one there you’d get little wafts of things, not the face-smack of being right up in it. Some rosemary over here, something sappy and resinous there, and just a whiff of rose water, while you’re sipping on a fresh drink trying to make sense of it all.
2020 • 10.2% Alc
Direct pressed juice + whole bunches - about a week.
I had some notes written for this wine and they were a bit off key - so f@#k it. What I will say is, I LOVE when you’re sitting around drinking some wine, a bunch of bottles are open, and one just connects. No one says anything, but before you know it, it’s empty and you wish you had another one. That’s when I’d probably say ‘wine of the night’. Now, I’m not saying this wine will be that for you, but it was for us, one night. I love those rare occasions, so I thought I’d just let you know.
2020 • 10.6% Alc
Pinot Noir + Savagnin + Chardonnay - all direct pressed.
Ocean spray. A walk on the beach at sunset. A bag of sherbet and a pink lemonade from the kiosk. Memories. Or the adult version: you passed out, woke up sandy, someone stole your backpack. Classic you.
Our 2020 Pash Rash sees pinot rubbing shoulders with some friends. Why? The ferments hummed along so healthily we had to slow them down with sweet juice. A good challenge to have, it’s kinda same but different this year, gentle fizz, the pinot bringing the fun, while the savagnin brings some adult supervision to the proceedings, with the faintest whiff of brioche at the end. Sophisticated? Nah. But a bit more chic for sure.
2019 • 11.7% Alc
Wild strawberry, sherbet, jalapeño margarita - white Cabernet, direct pressed Pinot Grigio with just enough Sangiovese to blush its cheeks.
On the nose, herbaceous and musky leading to some kinda subtle boiled lolly vibe. Acid is a driver here, minerality for days. That Jalepeno vibe at the end makes me wanna smash 8 or 9 fish tacos. Wildy refreshing.
This one screams for some sunshine, some friends and some tumblers. Salud!
2018 • 12.1% Alc
Campania-esque grapefruit and herby bitterness floating in the ether. Something fun we’d kinda forgotten about. A snapshot of our garden we loaded a muslin bag with Cola, Wormwood, Orange Peel, Bergamot, Chocolate Mint, Coriander Seed, and Lemon Verbena. Submerged in a tank of Pinot Gris/Chardy/Savagnin, we let steep for months. Orange orchard, quenching acidity, bitter grapefruit pith on the finish.
Tasting blind you might say it’s an orange wine from Campania, that some mad dog is pouring from a magnum. But the signature kick on the finish transports you somewhere else. JUST. YUM.
2019 • 11.4% Alc
Equal parts whole bunches and direct pressed juice, macerated for a couple of weeks - gentle gentle, no agro! Some direct pressed wine blended in to add freshness. Bright orange in colour, apricots and concentrated white peach. Moreish acidity with a lick of tannin driving it home. Fire up some northern Thai food and start living!
2019 • 12.2% Alc
Picked during a wild heatwave, 3 days over 40° - brutal! Whole bunches, jumped on and macerated for 4 days, topped up with some Pash Rash juice. Fresh and bright, with lively acidity. Reminds me a little bit of Allens toffee apple lollies, some tiny tannin hiding out right in the back. Hard not to smash a bottle.
2019 • 12.1% Alc
2019 yielded a tiny crop of Gris, a single 300L barrel. De-stemmed by hand and gently macerated for a week. Bright ruby in colour, a much more serious affair than the 2018. Round and ripe yet still feeling quite light, nice length coming from the fine tannin. Complete.
2019 • 11.9% Alc
Semi carbonic Merlot, topped up with rosé. Fresh strawberries, saltwater pool, leading to a savoury herbaceous finish. Inbetween a rosé and light red. Chill it down, it's your isolation/house party/zoom soifer!
2018 • 12.1% Alc
Equal parts Chardonnay and Savagnin, direct pressed to barrel and left untouched until the following summer. Ocean spray, salted lemons, faint nuttiness. Leave it open and watch it unfold!
2018 • 12.8% Alc
Hand de-stemmed, macerated until you can feel a bit of tannin. 8% SUPER light Pinot Noir blended before bottling. Cherries, Rasberries, Strawberry yoghurt. After a solid day in the garden, it’s really hitting the spot!
2019 • 10.9% Alc
Mount Torrens Sangiovese, semi carbonic. Bright ruby, bright aromatics, brighter acidity. Juicy raspberries, lick of tannin - light chill and off you go... YUM!
2019 • 10.7% Alc
Mount Compass Pinot Noir, picked, pressed, bottled. Simple...ish? Quenchy grapefruit flavours married with fresh strawberry in a delicious fizzy hit. Serve chilled!
2018 • 12.8% Alc
Direct pressed, some time in tank and barrel. On opening energetic acidity! With some time, opening to round, fruit driven fleshy melony pith. YUM!
2018 • 11.2% Alc
60% direct pressed, 40% de-stemmed and macerated. Gently floral, think white gum flower on the nose and lemonade fruit in your mouth. Arse end into a decanter to reveal a focused spine of minerality and nervy acidity.
2018 • 10.9% Alc
Second iteration of our evolving white blend. Chardonnay direct pressed to tank wth lightly skin-touched Savagnin. A texturally serious white, but darn easy to sink.
2018 • 11.4% Alc
Super light treatment yielding a super light wine. Lithe and elegant. Let it breathe and ye shall be rewarded. But we find it hard to leave this one sitting there.
2018 • 9.9% Alc
Pours bright ruby and dances around with fancy aromatico flair. It gives you a little lick of tannin and a good hit of acid... just how we like it.
2018 • 11.7% Alc
Pinot Noir, direct pressed. Sent to bottle with around 8 grams of sugar to finish fermenting. Quenchy Grapefruit vibes.
2018 • 11% Alc
All the varieties grown at the Mount Compass vineyard, whole bunch pressed and fermented in tank. Refreshing watermelon-like juice. We serve it over ice.
2018 • 11% Alc
A first for us, RED WINE! A #classic blend of Dolcetto, Sangiovese and Alicante Bouschet from Mount Torrens. Fresh crushed red fruits... FRESH! Dexter’s pasta compatability score: 100.
2017 • 12.4% Alc
Whole bunch pressed Savagnin topped with skinsy Sauvignon Blanc. Lightly aromatico, highly smashico!
2017 • 11.1% Alc
Pours bright ruby in the glass, drinks like a light red with bit of grip and quenching acid.
2017 • 11.2% Alc
Chardonnay + zippy Sauvignon blanc. Chill it down and slam it or watch it unfold over a few days. A textural white for the summertime times.
2017 • 12% Alc
Straight-pressed Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir over whole bunches of Merlot, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Savagnin. Refreshing watermelon-like juice. We serve it over ice.
2017 • 11% Alc
Straight-pressed Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc, sent to bottle with around 10 grams of sugar to finish ferment. Boozy pub squash - ZING!
2016 • 13.9% Alc
Skinsy Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc hanging out with straight-pressed Savagnin. Chills in bottle for a year, loves a bit of air on opening.