The Wine: Agori Red Blend 2020

Travis Tausend Agori Red Blend is a red natural wine made from a blend of 80% Merlot, 18% Pinot, and 2% Shiraz. The Shiraz is picked off wild vines that grow amongst the Sauvignon Blanc vines. The Merlot and Pinot were fermented separately then blended.

The Producer: Travis Tausend

I see winemaking as an art. The wines that I make have emotion, intuition, and energy that has flowed through me at the time of making them. For this reason, the wines will always be different, not only due to vintage variations from year to year, but also the changes and growth within me as a winemaker and person. I hope you find as much pleasure in drinking them as I do in the making.

I am interested in the history of the land, the environmental flow, the cultural resonance and the spiritual weight that weave a narrative into the vineyard. With that history comes a responsibility to care for the land allowing future generations to find it in better condition than when we found it.

I keep this in mind when tending to the vines and am intrigued to learn more from the traditional and rightful custodians of this place, the Peramangk people. Immersing ourselves in an intimate history of our place can only help shape a unique understanding of our responsibility as carers for this land. This deep knowledge and knowing of place will help to inform how I tell this story through the medium of wine.

All of the wines I make are done so with very little modern machinery, making use of a hand destemmer, and hand driven press, heaps of buckets, 2 hoses, a stack of old barrels and some tanks. It is important that we labor over the fruit to give attention to detail and respect a process that has a wonderful history of its own.

My history as a winemaker is short in practice but vast in learning and shaping of ideas. I have been involved in natural wine in some way since 2005. I have been moulding my opinion, my palate, perspective and an understanding of what makes me smile when I taste wine. I bring all of that to every decision that is made in the growing and making of the wines.

I dearly hope that when the wines are opened they are surrounded by good humour, great conversation and fun. After all, that is what they are there for. (source: Travis Tausend's website)

The Region: Adelaide Hills