Ochota Barrels Texture Like Sun Sector Red

Winemaker: Taras Ochota

Appellation: McLaren Vale, South Australia, Australia

Grape Varieties:   17% Gamay - 10% Pinot Noir - 4% Pinot Meunier - 3% Syrah

About The label may be completely illegible with its utterly lurid and almost painful yellow label. “That’s the idea”, said Taras back in 2018. “It’s something in a clear bottle, released in Spring, nothing to hide, yummy”. This wine has always been about the result and not the components, with each vintage changing quite a bit in the ‘how’s’ and ‘what’s’. 2021 marked a new era at Ochota Barrels with Amber taking control in the vineyards and cellar following the tragic passing of her husband Taras.  The name of the wine is taken from lyrics from the song ‘Golden Brown’ by The Stranglers as it was the song Taras and Amber danced to at their wedding. Keeping the song and eternal love going was never going to be in question and this blend of roughly 60% Adelaide Hills fruit with nearly 40% McLaren Vale fruit helps to accomplish that goal.

The fruit was hand-picked throughout February and early March with only the best fruit being used. The clusters were kept separate and cold soaked for a few days, then fermentation kicked off naturally. Toward the finale of primary fermentation the Gewürztraminer skins were tossed into the Pinot Noir and Meunier ferments. The fruit was hand plunged multiple times a day over the course of two weeks prior to being basketpressed to old French barriques for aging. Amber made the barrel selections for the blend after two months of aging then blended the wines to tank to settle. It was bottled without fining or filtration and just a small 35ppm addition of sulfur.

Tasting Note A blend of everything, pretty much, shaped into a very light, fresh red, or, a heavier rose. Sour cherry, pomegranate scents, sprigs of herbs, light dusting of pepper. Juiciness in texture, brisk acidity coursing through just-ripe strawberry fruit character. Nice twist of amaro-like bitterness through the wine, and finishing it too. Great drinking, deserves a chill.

The ochota barrels tale began on a surf trip, late 2000 along the Mexican west coast in a Volkswagen campervan. A final destination after traveling some of the world’s most amazing wine and surf regions, Taras and Amber Ochota conceived the idea to make beautiful holistic wines back home in South Australia.

After a mis-spent youth playing a rickenbakker bass in various punk bands (listen to Kranktus’ Heckler album), Taras became an Oenology graduate from Adelaide University, developing his craft in numerous vineyards and cellars around the world to then settle with Amber on 9.6 steep gorgeous acres tucked away, deep in the Basket Range of the beautiful Adelaide Hills.

Before this Taras worked as the European Flying Winemaker Consultant, concentrating on the Italian regions, Puglia, Abruzzo Sicily and further,  for the Swedish wine importing company Oenoforos.

California was also a regular vintage destination, making wines with producers such as Kunin, Bonnacorsi, Arcadian, Schrader, Outpost and the famous Hitching Post’s label, Hartley-Ostini, from the movie ‘Sideways’.

Amber’s wine experience ranges from vintages in Italy, vineyard development and cellar door sales in the Adelaide Hills and coordinating production and wine analysis for Nordic Sea Winery in southern Sweden.

-Vine Street Imports