Unico Zelo

Gumeracha, Adelaide Hills, Australia

Husband and wife duo Brendan and Laura Carter are like shooting stars. Just a decade ago they started Unico Zelo in the Adelaide Hills in 2012 to shine a light on the remarkable Italian varieties being planted in Australia to adapt to climate change. Only two years later they jointly won Australia’s coveted people’s choice  Young Gun of Wine Award. In their words, the Carters: 

[…] recalibrated the potential for new varieties and even unglamorous sites like few before them. Nero’ d’Avola, Fiano, Barbera, Dolcetto, Nebbiolo, Zibbibo and Moscato Giallo get decent airtime here, with single-site bottlings upping the flavour and structure stakes, while the entry-level drops stake their claims with vibrant drinkability.

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, praising their “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. 

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 Zelofor 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.

If you want to know more about the characteristics of this area you can take a look at www.vinerra.com