Smalltown Vineyards "Songlines" Barossa Valley Grenache 2019

Tom White has been making wine since 2002, making wine for his family’s winery in the Adelaide Hills, where he made Shiraz, Cabernet, Merlot, Semillon and Chardonnay. Tom then established his own contract winemaking business in 2008 and made wine all over South Australia in the Clare Valley, McLaren Vale, Riverland and, of course, the Barossa Valley where Tom finally put down some roots. In 2012 Tom purchased a vineyard in Marananga, a small town nestled in the heart of the Barossa between Seppeltsfield, Greenock and Stonewell making the wine at Rolf Binder the Winery before Tom’s own winery The Curator Wine Company began operating in 2020. Tom’s focus on special sites, basket presses, natural ferments, minimal intervention, indeed as little work as possible dovetails neatly with Smalltown’s existing philosophy of lazy, feet-up winemaking and Rolf ’s established practices.

Happily in January 2022 Rolf Binder the Human donned his winemaker’s stubbies once more and is now working with Tom at The Curator Wine Co on our very own Smalltown Vineyards! Yay! Rolf ’s sister Christa is still hugely involved in the Riesling and Chardonnay whilst Rolf tinkers with the reds whilst Tom runs the show. We will continue to evolve the Smalltown Vineyards range and labels to reflect the specific strengths and passions of this new partnership. There are some great old vineyards new to us this year to exploit as well as the ongoing wealth of experience, joy and handsomeness that Rolf and Christa bring to Tom’s contemporary winery.