We’ve been championing the flipside of the Aussie wine scene since four young Turks, James Erskine, Tom Shobbrook, Anton van Klopper and Sam Hughes combined to form a natural wine supergroup called Natural Wine Selection Theory and created such avant-garde vinous concepts as Project Egg Runway 3 and The Voice of the People. They sold their wares by means variously of poetry-recitals, interpretative dance and riotous bar takeovers, thereby truly injecting a healthy and dynamic dose of youthful iconoclasm into what was a staid and highly conservative wine scene.
Times change, members of groups start their solo enterprises, folks put down roots – and as a company we’ve also put down our roots down under. Les Caves de Pyrene Australia, for example, is making brilliant-value wines in the Terroirs project idiom (grape varieties that reflect their origin, the result of organic or biodynamic farming methods and bottled with the least intervention necessary). Eric and Anna themselves are crafting delicious Pinot Noir and Chardonnay (and blends) under a label called Nord-Sud in the Adelaide Hills. But overall, we have a fantastic range of wines in all styles from some very charismatic producers.
Jumping Juice, Xavier Goodridge
Jumping Juice is the vinous project of Xavier Goodridge with wine buddy Patrick Sullivan. Patrick and Xavier have been kicking around together since they were 18, heading to London together to take on the local wine scene. Jumping Juice is all about the journey and adventure. Two simpatico humans, whose roots lie in the vineyards and farming. Proper farming, with a deep respect for the nuances and rhythms of site, making the most of their knowledge of organic and biodynamic farming methods. All the wines are clean, fresh and crunchy, some showing varietal typicity, others being blends where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
2023 Riesling
2022 Chenin
2022 Sunset
2023 Orange
2022 Haggis Wine – (Cab Franc/Gewurz/Pinot Gris/Muscat)
2022 Half Full Red
Commune of Buttons, Jasper & Sophie Buttons, Basket Range, Adelaide Hills
In 2014 Jasper Button returned to his family vineyard called Fernglen. Commune refers to the project’s continued happy reliance on community and shared values and work ethic. The Commune of Buttons is found in the Basket Range on a property called “Fernglen” with 150 years of agricultural history. Its 70-acres fills an undulating hidden valley with slopes of all aspects to the sun, and an average altitude of 350m asl. It is surrounded by hilltop stringybark forests on all side. The ancient soils comprise red clay with quartz, schist and ironstone rocks over a bed of sandstone. The 3.5 ha vineyards are a mix of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo planted between 1993-95. The high rainfall and absorbent clay soils allow for the mature vines to be dry grown in this region. The vineyards have been managed organically for over a decade and a programme of regenerative pruning has begun to ensure that the vines have a strong future. All the wines are made without addition and have a cool salinity to them.
2021 Chardonnay
2021 ABC Chardonnay
2021 Pinot Noir
2021 Gloria Pinot Noir
2022 Basketolo Nebbiolo
2022 Basket Town Chardonnay
2022 Clover Chardonnay
Gentle Folk, Gareth & Rainbo Belton, Basket Range, Adelaide Hills
A love of wine, food and growing things eventually led Gareth and Rainbo Belton away from their former careers involving scuba gear and the study of seaweed. Having fallen in love with the gastronomy and the people of the Adelaide Hills, they set up shop in the Basket Range to make the wines that they liked to drink, and thus work organically and biodynamically in the vines, and with as little intervention as possible in the winery. They don’t like to define their styles or wine making techniques, just make wine in the way they feel is right for the grapes and season, and with maximum drinkability and enjoyment in mind. Crushability is the name of the game especially with the Rainbow Juice (is it a white masquerading as a red, a rosé, or a bit of everything, and the equally enjoyable Vin de Sofa (play on the word Soif). The blends change every year, but the drinkability remains the same.
2022 Rainbow Juice (Pinot Gris x blend of 12 red and white varieties)
2022 Vin de Sofa – (Sangiovese, Pinot Noir, Syrah and Merlot)
2023 Rainbow Juice
2023 Vin de Sofa
Jauma, James & Sophie Erskine, Lenswood, Adelaide Hills
Former sommelier, wine judge and co-founder of Australia’s wine avant-garde group “Natural Wine Selection Theory”, James Erskine makes wine in the Adelaide Hills from his favourite varieties Grenache and Chenin Blanc, sourced from old vines in and around the McLaren Vale. The reds are crunchy and vibrant with purple fruits, the whites textural (often with some skin maceration) but riding on a high seam of natural acidity.
2022 Somewhere On Another Hill (Sauvignon)
2022 Origins Arneis
2022 1000 Fires Chenin/Sauv
2021 Tikka The Cosmic Cat Shiraz/Grenache
2022 Like Raindrops Grenache
2022 Fairygarten Shiraz
Si Vintners, Iwo Jakimowicz & Sarah Morris, Margaret River
Margaret River is not the part of Australia you associate with jazzy iconoclasm. Wines from this region tend to be square and big-boned (and big-fleshed) and usually clad in heavy oak apparel. And then there is Si Vintners. The “S: and “I” is Sarah Morris and Iwo Jakimowicz, who, in September 2010, purchased a 30-acre estate with 20 acres under vine (the majority of which were planted in 1978). Their property is situated just south of the Margaret River township of Rosa Glen and the motivation was to handcraft natural (and natural tasting) wines, expressive of the vineyard and sub-region. They started farming their vineyard organically/biodynamically from the beginning and all their wines are made without any of the usual commercial winemaking additives apart from a small sulphur addition at bottling and bottled without fining or filtration.
2021 Baba Yaga
2021 Bella Chardonnay
2020 Ada Chardonnay
2018 Halcyon Cab Sauvignon
Castagna, Julian & Adam Castagna, Beechworth, Victoria
The winemaking at Castagna is pretty much what you would expect from a tiny biodynamic outfit that produces 1800 cases of wine across two labels. Everything is done by hand, with very little electricity. Hand harvesting leads to gentle crushing of whole clusters and some destemmed grapes. Fermentations take place at their own speed with native yeasts, pressing is done by hand with a basket press, and the wines are never fined or filtered. New oak is generally kept to a minimum. The results of Castagna’s approach truly speak for themselves. The wines range from very good to tremendous, and clearly reflect both the soil and the season in which they are made as well as the vision of the person who has made them. Castagna is clearly making wines of philosophy and of place, and succeeding admirably, even as his wines defy the stereotypes of Australian wine as big, over-oaked, fruit bombs.
2021 Adam’s Rib Red
2019 Growers’ Selection Chardonnay
2018 Un Segreto
2018 La Chiave
Momento Mori, Dane Johns, Heathcote, Victoria
New Zealander Dane Johns (who staged with the great Bill Downie) worked many years as a barista in Melbourne where he learned about roasting and the nuances of blending and flavour infusion. He was also a musician, making electronic music and then moving towards the analogue version (much like his winemaking). He worked several vintages for Bress Winery in Victoria and was also an alumnus of the brilliant independent wine shop(s) called Blackhearts & Sparrows where he got to taste a lot of natural wines from around the world. The fruit for his Italian-themed wines is grown by the Chalmers Family Vineyard on the Mt Camel ranges in northern Heathcote. Experimental blocks were planted to around 30 different grape varieties (mostly Italian) a few years ago. Dane works closely with the Chalmers Family to achieve the quality of fruit they require each year. They are meticulous in the vineyard, using organic viticulture practices and have decades of knowledge growing alternative varieties in Australia. The wines are light and floral, the reds often pale verging on the rose-tinted, and the whites made with varying amounts of skin-contact. Brilliant and endlessly intriguing.
2021 Staring at the Sun (Fiano/Vermentino/Malvasia/Moscato)
2019 Give Up The Ghost (Greco)
2019 Bianco (Fiano/Vermentino/Malvasia)
2019 Nosiola
2022 True Love Waits (Sangiovese/Syrah/Lambrusco)
2022 Everything is Free (Nero d’Avola/Moscato Giallo)
2021 Rack & Ruin (Ribolla Gialla/Nero d’Avola)
2021 Mt Camel Rose (Schioppettino)
2021 Amphora (Lagrein/Fiano)
2020 The Incline (Syrah)
2019 The Wanderer (Pinot Noir)
Nikau Farm, Dane Johns, Baw Baw Shire, Victoria
Nikau Farm is home to Dane Johns, his wife Hannah and son River. It is an expansive property of about 95 acres in the Baw Baw region of Gippsland, Victoria. It sits high on a group of ranges in a place known to the indigenous peoples of this country as ‘Tolone’. Dane and his family have had this property for 4 years now and in that time have established large vegetable gardens, mixed grazing animals and flocks of runner ducks as well as chickens and other birds to increase the overall biodiversity. So far there has been one entire hillside planted back to native forest and another earmarked for regeneration of more local native species later this year. There is a 25-year-old olive grove which has been nurtured back to fruition and have plans to plant a small orchard next to this. The property has two small plots (0.75h each) of vines. The farm has never been subjected to herbicides, or inorganic fertilizer. Working with the flow of and within the cycles of nature is of paramount importance in every aspect of what they do on their property. The wines are thrilling, tightly-wound, and granitic in their sheer minerality.
2019 Tolone White (Riesling/Chardonnay)
2020 Tonimbuk Amphora Granite – (Pinot Gris/Chardonnay/Sauvignon)
2020 Tonibuk Pinot Noir
2020 Nikau Farm Home Block Pinot Noir
Patrick Sullivan Wine, Baw Baw Shire, Gippsland, Victoria
Patrick lives and makes wine on his farm in the Strezleki ranges, Gippsland. The wines are inspired by emotion, a moment in time and a sense of place. There is an emphasis on cool-climate wines. He seeks to articulate the specifics of the vineyard; many are small blocks of vines on particular soils. Winemaking is scrupulous– whole cluster pressing into large oak barrels and sulphites added before bottling only. The wines seem almost classical, but brim with natural energy.
2022 Ada River Chardonnay
2021 Bull Swamp Chardonnay
2022 Black Sands Chardonnay
2022 Woori Yallock Chardonnay
2021 Gippsland Pinot Noir
2021 Millstream Pinot Noir
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Interested in finding out more about the Aussie wines mentioned? Contact us directly:
shop@lescaves.co.uk | sales@lescaves.co.uk | 01483 538820