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Welcome to our ‘Wine of the Week’ series, where we highlight particular wines on the radar of restaurants, bars and hospitality venues around the country.
Find a wine bar and bottle shop representing sustainable winemakers, wine drinkers and wine ethos at Glou on Smith Street in Collingwood. Tucked in between sustainability-focused Friends of the Earth and Beermash, this wine dispensary sells vino exclusively from kegs into reusable bottles from one of 16 on-tap varietals.
Owned and operated by Rahel and Ron Goldmann-Davis, the first wine the couple ever drank together was out of a sauerkraut jar.
"This was obviously the precursor for us to think of good wine as being something that doesn’t need to be inherently tied to glass bottles,” Rahel says. "The jar was washed and reused too.”
They recommend trying Rasa Locomotive 2022 from Barossa Valley winemakers Andy and Emma Cummins – a blend of Carignan, Cinsault, Grenache and Shiraz made especially for Glou.
"Each vintage, we at Glou get a little giddier about what Andy and Emma are creating for us. For the third vintage now, they have crafted two wines just for Glou and those who grace our doorway.
"Not by format of some soul-less contract winemaking situation, but in a way of just making two wines that otherwise would not get to exist, had it not been for our kegs waiting patiently off to the side.”
Rahel says the Locomotive sways and rolls through with deep, dark fruits – but it is never jammy, its edges lifted and bright while the sweetness is cradled through so as not to hit you in the jowls with residual sugar.
"It could find a really nice place at the dinner table, but it also doesn’t have to. Get to know the Barossa again!”
Rasa wines encapsulate the true, ever-changing nature of the Barossa, giving each component its own chance for clarity and playing out a symphony of the range of soils the valley has to offer.
