Two music tragics – Nathan Reeves and David Chatfield – decide that their industry of choice is letting them down (or perhaps the other way around) and decide to follow a nobler path….a more vinous path.
Nathan worked vintages in Margaret River and California, then settled in the Yarra Valley. David, a former label manager and promoter, did his formative work at Yarra icons Oakridge and Giant Steps, along the way bumping into Nathan a few times. They bonded over music but things really got serious when they started discussing making their own wine one day.
Come 2012 and the mad idea of Out of Step Wine Co is born. Turns out its not so mad after all. Their approach is simple, although the wines themselves are anything but. Making small batches from single sites selected for their ability to yield grapes of outstanding quality, & eschewing a lot of conventional techniques that seem to make for rather pedestrian booze, they believe it is of critical importance that what they produce genuinely communicates the variety, vineyard, season and combination thereof, as well as being delicious. As the guys say themselves, to be great it must be real, expressive & honest. They seem to have the balance pretty bang on so far…
Out Of Step has played a substantial role in re-defining Sauvignon Blanc within the Australian wine landscape, consistently producing interesting and complex single-vineyard offerings. The 2017 Summerhill is a standout from the current range. The wine is wild fermented and matured in oak (5% new, 95% used French). The subtle oak contributes texture and spice, while allowing the pristine, cool-climate fruit flavours to shine through. An exceptional Australian Sauvignon Blanc with a depth and purity rarely found in this variety, this still has many years of enjoyment ahead of it.
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