Meet Steve 🙂

by Megan Jones

July 16, 2024

G’day…

You’re gonna have me for the foreseeable on Tuesdays, sorry. But it’s not all bad, I’ll be introducing you to a handful of new producers that we’ve just lovingly unloaded and dragged across the Kingsland Rd into our warehouse (sorry if you were in one of the cars that we blocked off). Needs must….

Ah, Steve aka Frederick Stevenson aka Giorgio Armani. Anyone who has several monikers for themselves is totally fine with me. I’ve known Steve for years, having sold his wines in Sydney in a former, more tanned life. So it brings me immense pleasure to have graduated to UK importer for a producer that played an influential part in my ever improving wine taste.

On my vinous journey to Australia earlier this year I had an afternoon with Steve in his Adelaide winery to taste/have a beer/make some decisions. Good decisions they were. His winery is called Oddio, it’s a stunning facility built inside an old Lutheran Church in the northern part of the city. Worth a visit if you’re in that neck of the woods. Steve, and Riley also who was making his wines there, love the fact that it’s 30 mins from the beach but also 30 mins from the vineyards. It’s great to meet producers who have their priorities firmly in place. Anyway, because quality is the top of my list, there was a mammoth tasting in situ followed by a second mammoth tasting a few weeks later in Sydney (see below), just to make sure I wasn’t blinded by the man/pilsner, which if you read on/buy to drink you’ll see wasn’t the case.

The focus is largely on varieties that thrive in the sunshine of South Australia rather than fitting square pegs into round holes. Fruit is sourced from a swathe of sustainably or organically farmed vineyards and winemaking is gentle. These are wines to splash around and enjoy whilst offering incredible levels of complexity if you care to look. A dangerous combination. Good dangerous.

We’ve got Bianco, which is a blend of Vermentino, Inzolia and Pecorino. A coupla days of skin contact lends grip alongside an uber salty feel and crispy fruit. Puts you firmly on the coast.

Marsanne + Roussanne is the combination you never knew you wanted/needed but now cannot do without. Again, a couple of days of maceration gives us the required texture with zero loss of freshness. It’s a ripper, if you don’t believe me ask the multitude of people who hammered glasses of it last night in the bar…

Chardy is something that Australia broadly does better than anywhere (fighting words but true) , particularly when fruit comes from prime spots in the Hills. The only issue with this is lack of supply. We received an amount that I am fairly sure I personally could consume over the next few weeks so if you like Chardonnay that gives extreme amounts of pleasure, this is your dude/dudette.

Finally, Piñata! In Steve’s own words a wine to “serve slightly chilled over the warmer months for a 12pm, 5pm and / or midnight elixir”. Music to collective ears in these parts. Kind of a no-brainer?

All the gear is available right here, so do your worst.

I got almost the whole way through here without mentioning the , better luck next time