Founded on a love of life, music and wine, Taras Ochota summarizes his experience and the essence that is Ochota Barrels: 

"In the past 22 years, I have worked in many parts of the world with many great winemakers (and of course lovely people) who have in some way influenced our wine style.

Whether it be the suave chain smoking white suited Italian, the obsessive compulsive tech-savvy Australian, the sex mad country and western listening Californian, or the French oenologist who thought that bright green three-quarter pants, a pink collar up shirt with a lemon vest was ‘très à la mode’ to see punk band, The Dead Kennedy’s. These are just a few of the equally appreciated, super creative, (sometimes bordering on psychotic) grape growing and winemaking lunatics that have shared their knowledge, wines, experience, heritage, houses, couches, tractors, cars, wineries, equipment and often many a cocktail from the esky. It is from this smorgasbord of collective experience that we have picked the eyes out to craft the Ochota Barrels wines.

A holistic approach from autumn to autumn in the vineyard, with the philosophy of going back to basics to create something delicious and unique with mother nature.

We are strongly drawn to and influenced by the small biodynamic producers we came across in the south of France. Organically farmed vineyards planted to earth that is alive, lo-fi technique and picking decisions made purely on natural acidity which hopefully contribute to a wine’s energy and nervous tension.

Texture is an important focus, manipulating mouth-feel with limited or extended time on skins including batonnage. Beautifully sculptured old bush vines with low yields and small berries, picked basically when you can’t stop eating them because they taste so delicious. There are no instruments on those sunrise vineyard walks, and if the stalks are piquant, whole bunches are included in our half tonne ferments. Controlled pigeage and hand cap-submersion retains purity of fruit, whereby the wild indigenous and spontaneous fermentation enhances complexity and artisan charm. However, an Occam’s Razor approach is still taken, as the expression of the vineyard is paramount. This is the reason we aim to make wines with attention to detail that are real and pure.

We are finding that those pretty nuances you experience directly from a fresh barrel siphon in our mid hills foggy winter are extraordinary… so we have been experimenting with much lower sulphur levels to find the perfect medium to suit each cuvée… so… stay tuned our beautiful wine loving friends. Basically, we just want to produce something delicious and gorgeous for all of us to enjoy with none of the nasties and more of the love." xx Taras Ochota