Unico Zelo

A stint working in Champagne convinced Brendan Carter to trade wine retail for winemaking, and studying oenology in Adelaide is where he met Laura, then finishing an agricultural science degree with a placement in Henschke's lab. Together since 2014 they have built their label around Italian and Spanish varieties barely planted in Australia when they started — nero d'avola, fiano, barbera, dolcetto, nebbiolo, zibibbo, moscato giallo — arguing that South Australia's warm, dry pockets suit these grapes better than the usual suspects. The cellar door occupies a converted 1920s industrial cold store in Gumeracha, all exposed brick and steel trusses, open Friday to Sunday with tastings running through both the everyday drinking range and single-site bottlings. The gamble on unfashionable grapes has paid off in results rather than curiosity value alone: a Gold Medal at the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show for their fiano, and a People's Choice Award from Young Gun of Wine in their first year. It is one of the more useful arguments in the country for why the classics are not the only grapes worth planting.