Ochota Barrels

Ochota Barrels is a beloved Adelaide Hills winery, with a cult following, nestled in the depths of the Basket Range. Taras Ochota was a talisman for a new generation of Australian winemakers, and together with his wife, Amber, he created an exciting portfolio of wines from small, carefully tended Adelaide Hills sites as well as neighbouring districts such as McLaren Vale. Tragically, Taras died in October 2020. The subsequent vintages were managed by Amber, with the assistance of Taras’ dad, Yari, and Louis Schofield, as well as long-time winemaking mentor Peter Leske. Lucas Armstrong (Living Roots, Luka Wine) joined the winemaking team in ’23, and the ’24 vintage was made solely by Amber and Lucas. The wines are deeply evocative, but there’s a gentle humility to them, and they run the gamut of everyday drinking to Sunday best with expressions of grenache, gamay, chardonnay, pinot noir, shiraz and pinot meunier making up the majority of the offering. Central to the brand and range is Taras’ legacy, nurtured and lovingly sewn within, and shared with the wider wine community by Amber. An important producer of many merits. -KATRINA BUTLER