We’re lucky to have some of the country’s most accessible wine regions. But, increasingly, you don’t have to go further than the city fringe to find a cellar door. In the past eight months we’ve welcomed Ferg’s in Stepney and Oddio in Bowden. This week, Riot Wine Co joins the list. Its cellar door, The Cannery, opens on Thursday on Torrens Road in Brompton.
The wine label launched in 2016 after the tap-wine boom in the US, says co-founder and winemaker Tommy O’Donnell. Its first release was a rosé – in a stainless-steel keg. The only catch: you had to be at a bar or restaurant to try it. In March 2017 the label started canning its wines, and branched out with a sparkling chardonnay, sav blanc and grenache.
O’Donnell says Riot Wine Co is the first company in Australia to store 100 per cent of its wine in reusable stainless-steel kegs and package it in recyclable cans. (“Every keg we use saves 66 bottles from landfill,” he says.) Both methods maintain the wine’s freshness by protecting it from light, oxygen and heat. By the end of the year, all of the canning and kegging will be done on-site (and on display).
In the meantime you can sample the entire range at the 12-tap container bar – including all the limited-release, experimental stuff “that won’t go anywhere else”, O’Donnell says. Grab some cans to take away, or (soon) taste them fresh off the canning line.
With the cellar door launch comes a handful of new-release drops: there’s a riesling, chardonnay, pinot grigio-gris hybrid and rosé. Plus an industry-crossing riesling-pilsner collab with Pirate Life (“We co-fermented our zesty, fresh riesling juice with the pilsner,” says O’Donnell.)
Those heading to Beer & BBQ Festival at the Adelaide Showground this weekend can taste Riot Wine Co’s full catalogue there, too.
The Cannery opens this Thursday July 11, from 6pm to 10pm, with food by Pizzateca. For more information visit the Facebook event.
The Cannery
59 Torrens Road, Brompton
Hours:
Mon to Fri 9am–5pm
