Fab Wine Fest – Meet the Makers

Organic Drops & Quiet Icons

Walking into The Porter House Hotel Sydney – MGallery for FAB Wine Fest’s Meet the Makers evening, the first thing I noticed wasn’t a bottle. Every producer in the room was pouring certified organic wines and spirits.

Early in the evening I found myself at Handpicked Wines showcasing chardonnays from Mornington and Tasmania as well as the range of pinot noirs from the Mornington. Solid range and solid start to the evening.

The moved onto Frankland Estate’s focus on Riesling ranging from dry to off dry styles. The most interesting of the night was the Alter Weg Riesling. Barrel fermentation, texture, time. It carries a sense of intention that sits slightly outside the expected Australian Riesling conversation.

One of the highlights of the night for me was the Savigny-lès-Beaune Aux Fournaux 2019 from Domaine Giboulot. I was told about the story that these could be his last vintages gave a greater sense of enormity to the occasion. The wines also absolutely delivered with the variations from more red berry to darker berry, brooding, bunchy styles.

There’s something about Burgundy. Savigny-lès-Beaune sits just north of Beaune itself in the Côte de Beaune. Often quieter in reputation than its neighbours, but rarely quieter in expression. Wines from here tend to carry a kind of calm clarity that feels less like performance and more like observation.

Next is Sicily’s Gorghi Tondi, their wines carried warmth without heaviness. It was bright, coastal, open, but what stayed with me wasn’t just the flavour, it was how naturally the vineyard entered the conversation. When growers farm this closely to their sites, place isn’t something they describe afterwards. It’s something they start with.

Further along, Piemonte arrived through Renato Buganza’s Barolo. Barolo can sometimes feel like a wine people approach carefully. This one didn’t create distance. Instead, it felt like being introduced to a hillside rather than a label. The conversation moved easily between soil, slope and season. The kinds of details that surface when farming decisions are made year after year by the same hands.

Somewhere between those tables, I bumped into the wonderful Sean (@shirazzmatazz) whom we haven’t seen in a while, to share ideas thoughts across the wines on show.

What a Sunday night and thank you Fab Wines!