Welcoming UNICO ZELO to Alberta

The Unico Zelo Team

And in a delightful turn of events, this year it has been their whites that have stolen the spotlight. The variety Brendan & Laura have planted their flag on perhaps more than any other producer on the continent: Fiano! Southern Italy’s always-the-bridesmaid-never-the-bride beauty, Fiano’s tactile acidity and expressive fruit show incredible soul and structure in South Australia.

Decanter awarded Unico Zelo’s most recent vintage of ‘Alluvium’ Fiano and ‘Jade & Jasper’ Fiano glowing reviews and 94 and 97 point scores respectively. They praise their Fianos’ “Seductive, airy perfume of jasmine, lemon aspen and white peach, anchored on the palate by lemon curd and green apple bite with nashi pear and racy acidity leaving the flavours to linger.” 2022’s Jade & Jasper Fiano was even named in David Sly’s top Australian wines of 2022. 

The Back Story

Brendan arrived in Adelaide in 2010 after working a stint at Veuve Clicquot. A good few years working in retail shops in Brisbane instilled in him a love for wine, and after an extended visit to Champagne, the quixotic desire to make his own wines took hold of him. It was while studying Oenology at the University of Adelaide that he met an Agricultural Science student named Laura. Brendan passed on to Laura that contagious passion for wine we all know so well and so when she finished her degree she went to work in the lab at Henschke. Not long after graduating the two of them applied their enormous energy and ambition to start not only Unico Zelo for their wines but also their own distillery, Applewood. From the combination of their love for fruit and their love for spirits they are further enabled to make a host of wine and plant based elixirs ranging from vermouth to amaro to liqueurs. They even have a brand of perfumes called Nømad. These are two people who fully embrace and celebrate the organoleptic buffet nature offers us. 

TROPO Sparkling

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TROPO Pink Pét-Nat

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2022 Jade & Jasper Fiano

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2021 Alluvium Fiano

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AB CSPC/SKU # 885961

TROPO Sparkling

Adelaide Hills

Brendan and Laura's TROPO Sparkling is a happy lil Chardonnay for a summer's day. This ultra-versatile refresher is a crystal clean Blanc de Blancs grown on an elevated and exposed site in Birdwood around the corner from their Adelaide Hills winery. The sparkling delivers with plenty of apply, lime zesty, nectarine minerality and a brut level dryness.

• Varietal/Blend: 100% Chardonnay
• Fermentation: Direct pressed. Temperature controlled cool ferment.
• Ageing: 3 months maturation in stainless on the lees. Charmat method.
• Vineyard & Vine Age: Dry-grown in Birdwood, Adelaide Hills. Hand harvested.
• ABV: 11.6%

AB CSPC/SKU # 885960

TROPO Pink Pét-Nat

Adelaide Hills

Unico Zelo have built a lovely bubbly blush from Adelaide Hills fruit here, combining Chardonnay, skinsy Pinot Gris, and a tiny dose of Merlot. The nose gives orange and orange peel oil and a gentle, vernal, woodsy note with hints rosemary and white flowers. The palate is bone dry and marked by notes of dried flowers, orange peel, currants, and a bit of oolong tea, pickled cherries, and cream soda. Black table grape and plum skins round out the finish.

• Varietal/Blend: 55% Chardonnay, 44% Pinot Gris, 1% Merlot
• Fermentation: Each variety is wild fermented separately then racked, blended, and refremented in bottle.
• Ageing: Briefly aged in bottle.
• Vineyard & Vine Age: Vineyards in Adelaide Hills.
• ABV: 12.0%

AB CSPC/SKU # 885965

Jade & Jasper Fiano

Riverland

An aromatic, textured, joyfully juicy wine, Fiano is Unico Zelo's main white variety and most acclaimed. It's ability to be dry grown in the Riverland, functionally a desert, is what makes the grape so promising for Australia from an environmental sustainability perspective but that wouldn't count for much if it didn't prove to be incredibly delicious.

On the nose: floral, lime, peach, a fresh herbaceousness almost like irish spring, and nuanced by a savoury note of cantaloupe rind and coriander seeds. On the palate the acid is so beautifully integrated it really doesn’t hit you it's gorgeous intensity until after you swallow, revealing a toasted almond layer over top of the notes shown on the nose and a sour peach and peach skin complexion. The finish has a big lime juice energy, much brighter than most Italian Fiano we've tried. Such a pleasure, this wine! 2022 vintage - 97 points, Decanter.

• Varietal/Blend: 100% Fiano
• Fermentation: 24 hours skin contact. Stainless.
• Ageing: Matured three months on the lees. No MLF. Lightly filtered.
• Vineyard & Vine Age: Dry-grown in Waikerie in the Riverland at Riccaterra Farm by Ashley and Holly Ratcliff. Hand harvested. 12yo vines.
• ABV: 12.1%

AB CSPC/SKU # 885970

Alluvium Fiano

Adelaide Hills

Brendan & Laura's Alluvium Fiano is their pride and joy, an aromatic, tensile creation with a crystal hewn definition. In their words "Ever had a wine that tastes like a laser?" Grown at the epic Mylkappa Vineyards around the corner from the winery. Due to the Adelaide Hills' cooler climate, the Alluvium cuvée shows a pristinely citrus quality.

The nose gives stewed oranges and peach preserves with a slightly leesy warmth, one of those really intriguing aromas that holds your attention, showing a bit of toasted fennel seed, a bit of toasted chickpea or papadam, just drawing you in like a tractor beam, making you wish you could turn this into a perfume you could simply wear. On the palate we are met with a more leesy, less fruity Finao than the equally delicious Jade & Jasper, the acidity more textured, the flavours rolling over the palate in waves of apple, peach skin, red plum, more savoury and thoughtful, giving a finish of lemongrass and sesame seed. Stunning. 2020 - 94 points, Decanter.

• Varietal/Blend: 100% Fiano
• Fermentation: 24 hours skin contact. Stainless.
• Ageing: Matured eight months on the lees. No MLF. Lightly filtered.
• Vineyard & Vine Age: Dry-grown in Birdwood, Adelaide Hills. Hand harvested.
• ABV: 12.1%

AB CSPC/SKU # 885964

Esoterico Orange

Clare Valley & Riverland

Aromatic orange wines are such a delight, especially when they are rendered so cleanly, eschewing any of the more daring off-qualities often rendered permissible in skin-contact whites. A happy gang of Zibibbo, Gewürztraminer, Moscato Giallo, Greco, and Chardonnay grown in the Clare Valley and Riverland are co-fermented into this rich and refreshing wine.

The nose here is gripping: sandalwood, lemon zest, fresh fruity juniper, coriander seed, mint, and a note of whatever they use to flavour juicy fruit gum. And markedly not cidery or yeasty as one often expects with an orange wine. On the palate, those aromas come together into a wine that is delightfully gin-like, really refreshing, and just very well-made—not oxidized, not riddled with VA or glutamates—a balanced beauty. The finish is floral with a lingering zesty citrus profile and the warm fruit note of honey dew. 2016 & 2018 - 91 points, Decanter.

• Varietal/Blend: 66% Zibibbo, 25% Gewürztraminer, 7% Moscato Giallo, 2% Greco
• Fermentation: Co-fermented with 7 days of maceration on skins.
• Ageing: Matured for 8 months in a combination of old oak foudres and stainless steel. No additions of any kind save for sulphur at the time of bottling. Unfined. Unfiltered.
• Vineyard & Vine Age: Fruit from Barmera in Riverland and Polish Hill River in Clare Valley. Vines 25-80 years old.
• ABV: 11.4%

AB CSPC/SKU # 885969

2022 Fresh A.F. Red

Riverland & Clare Valley

The Riverland, a veritable desert, is a complete underdog region that epitomises what it is to craft fine wine on the edge. Great farmers are year in and year out revealing that the area's rich red sandy soils over limestone can produce gorgeous wine without a ton of irrigation... IF the variety is right. Brendan & Laura are intensely passionate about Nero d’Avola and its clear potential in the warm, sun-drenched spots of Australia. The insane water-efficiency of this variety coupled with no additions in the vineyard or winery (save for a small component of SO2 at bottling) displays the potential for this variety to craft succulent, juicy, aromatic, and supremely refreshing wine. The stroke of genius in the 'Fresh AF' cuvée is adding a bit of the Sicily's aromatic white grape Zibibbo to the wine, not unlike the splash of Viognier you'll see in old-school Rhône Syrah. It lifts the aroma into supreme smashability.

The nose is concentrated and inviting. It provokes childhood memories of that weird and delicious soapy purple gum “Thrills,” something like lilac and licorice, so pretty and bright and grapey, like welches grape juice went to university and a very nice concentration. The palate gushes with bergamot, grape, plum, black cherry, just so many fruits, really explosive and juicy, nuanced with notes of lavender, lilac, and river rock, with well balanced, refreshing acidity. The finish adds in a lovely note of aniseed.

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• Varietal/Blend: Nero d'Avola, Grenache, Zibibbo
• Fermentation: The Nero d'Avola and Zibibbo are co-fermented in stainless steel with 5 days on the skins. The Grenache is fermented with 7 days skin-contact.
• Ageing: Matured in stainless steel for 3 months.
• Vineyard & Vine Age: Fruit from Barmera in the Riverland at Riccaterra Farm by Ashley and Holly Ratcliff. Hand harvested. 15yo vines.
• ABV: 12.0%

AB CSPC/SKU # 885968

2022 Truffle Hound Red

Clare Valley & Adelaide Hills

Affectionately known as ‘Truffle Hound’, this gorgeous Piemontese inspired blend is Unico Zelo’s early-released, approachable, more jovial expression of Barbera & Nebbiolo. In this wine they’ve aimed to retain higher aromatics while preserving the herbal savouriness of these varieties for an amaro-like wine that refreshes with complexity—something like a red wine’s response to a Milanese spritz.

On the nose, crushed cherrys, dried cherries, tart cherries, tomato paste, and savoury eucalyptus. On the palate, terrific structure, darker profiled than on the nose with black cherry, a bit of cocoa, dried blueberry, and a hint of mushroom beginning to show (true to its nom de plume!). The finish is amaro like with cardamom and liquorice and thyme and rosemary and more of that delicious mushroomy note, true to form. Beautiful at cellar temperature and lovely too with a chill.

• Varietal/Blend: Nebbiolo, Barbera, Sangiovese, Merlot
• Fermentation: All four varieties co-fermented in stainless steel. Only 5 days of skin contact.
• Ageing: Matured in stainless steel for 6 months.
• Vineyard & Vine Age: Fruit grown in Polish Hill in Clare Valley and at Gumeracha in Adelaide Hills.
• ABV: 12.7%

AB CSPC/SKU # 885971

2021 Pastafarian Red

Adelaide Hills

The fullest bodied of Unico Zelo's offerings, this wine is so sultry. In the short tenure of Piedmontese varieties being planted in Adelaide Hills, the Talc Hill vineyard, farmed by the Edwards Family, has already become known as possibly the best site for Nebbiolo thus planted in Australia. Hand picked and sorted by the Unico Zelo team, the Nebbiolo is fermented with a sizeable portion of Talc Hill's juicy Sangiovese, and a splash of Merlot and Nero d'Avola. This wine showed up in our glass like a new best friend. The wine is named after the fake religion Pastafarianism because it too worships the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a perfect partner for a big bowl of red sauce smothered shaghett.

• Varietal/Blend: 44% Nebbiolo, 38% Sangiovese, 14% Merlot, 4% Nero d'Avola
• Fermentation: Whole berry fermentation in separate batches for each variety with 7-10 days of maceration.
• Ageing: Matured eight months in oak foudres. Lightly filtered before bottling. At least 4 months further maturation in bottle before release.
• Vineyard & Vine Age: Talc Hill estate vineyard in Gumeracha, Adelaide Hills. Grown by the Edwards Family.
• ABV: 14.0%

AB CSPC/SKU # 885972

Pomelo Vermouth



• Varietal/Blend: Sauvignon Blanc, Pomelo, Ruby Red Grapefruit, Peppermint, Finger Limes, fresh and dried Wormwood
• Soils: Various
• ABV: 16.0%

AB CSPC/SKU # 885973

Rosa Vermouth

• Varietal/Blend: Pinot Gris, Grenache, Rosella Hibiscus, Davidson Plum, Strawberry, fresh and dried Wormwood
• Soils: Various
• ABV: 16.0%

AB CSPC/SKU # 885986

Yuzu Vermouth

• Varietal/Blend: Merlot, Yuzu, undisclosed herbs
• Soils: Various
• ABV: 16.0%