Almost famous

Taras’ Ukrainian grandparents were making minimal intervention wine in South Australia’s Clare Valley long before minimal intervention wine became the ‘hot new thing’ it is today. They grew grapes without pesticides, made wines without sulfur and drank from old Vegemite jars. This lo-fi approach and lack of pretense has been a key influence in Taras’s attitude to wine and life. 

After finishing school, Taras completed a degree in hospitality management while playing bass in a punk band that performed to 5,000 people at a major music festival. They very nearly became the next big thing. His first jobs after uni saw him pruning vineyards in McLaren Vale and the Adelaide Hills, and this led to work as a vineyard manager and studies in oenology. 

With a raft of qualifications, Taras got a global perspective in California, surfing and playing in bands in between harvests and winery work. He settled for a few years at innovative Barossa Valley winery, Two Hands, honing his craft, before heading off again with his wife Amber – this time to Sweden. He’d got a job as a winemaker for a Swedish wine importer, where he made wines with grapes from all over the world. 

Finding freedom in the Hills

After returning to South Australia, Taras and Amber bought land in the Adelaide Hills and launched their own wine label, Ochota Barrels. It was the stuff of his daydreams: a small, artisanal label producing unique, minimal-intervention wines. He sources fruit from surrounding vineyards in the Hills and special sites in McLaren Vale and Barossa Valley, and picks his grapes earlier than most winemakers, hunting for that perfect balance between fruit flavour and acidity. “My idea is to embrace that natural acidity, which is basically from picking early,” he says. “With that you get lower alcohol than your typical Australian wines. Wines that have energy.” These are the wines Taras loves to drink. 

Ochota Barrels brings together Taras and Amber’s array of wine making experiences, but their overriding philosophy is simple: to produce delicious wines using a back-to-basics approach. They use fruit from organic vineyards and minimise chemicals in the winery. As they say on their website: “Basically, we just want to produce something delicious and gorgeous for all of us to enjoy with none of the nasties and more of the love.”

Taras has never been afraid to go his own way. Pleasing the crowd doesn’t come into it. But through his elegant wines stripped of pretense and ego, that’s exactly what he’s done. Ochota Barrels wines sell out within days of release. Many are named after music that’s influenced Taras – the surfing punk rocker who’s leading the charge for minimal-intervention winemaking and inspiring the Australian wine community. 

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