Unico Zelo 'Esoterico' 2022
The Wine
The 2022 release is a blend of 50% Zibibbo (Riverland) with a blend of Gewürztraminer (Polish Hill River), Moscato Giallo and a small parcel of Greco di Tufo from vineyards in the Riverland and Polish Hill River.
What is Esoterico? A wonderfully delicious and genuinely affordable ‘dip your toe in Orange’ wine from Unico Zelo. A Zibibbo blend fermented on skins for 14 days. Half of the wine is left in tank whilst the second half is patiently left to age in a 3500 litre foudre for 10 months. Bottled unfined and unfiltered.
Unico's Brendan & Laura are on a passionate mission to try and support a grower so he wouldn’t pull out his incredible old bush vine Zibibbo planted in the Riverland who just wasn’t getting any love for his grapes except for cask wine production. They saw first hand the quality of the fruit and set out to try and find a way to buy all the fruit from his vineyard, not just to save the vines but to find a way to pay him a far better price for his grapes.
After a making/bottling these grapes in various guises Unico Zelo created Esoterico, a skin contact expression of the fruit from this vineyard and it has been a tremendous success. 7-21 days on skins (variety dependent) maturation in stainless & foudre for 12 months on fine lees, before racking to stainless for further maturation prior to botting.
The Details
Variety - Zibibbo, Gewürztraminer, Moscato Giallo
Country - Australia
Region - South Australia
Sub Region - Riverland
Extra - Cork
Year - 2022
Volume - 750ml
About the Wine Maker 
Brendan and Laura Carter of Unico Zelo apply an intuitive approach to their wines, making them in natural in all sense of the term. They secure fruit parcels that match the varietal to the soil and climate to region. Nero D’Avola and Fiano from the hot dry Riverland and Nebbiolo from the blue slate soils of Polish Hill in the Clare Valley.
Laura, chief winemaker and her husband, Brendan, are incredibly passionate about the soil and produce in Australia. It’s their intent to showcase products to the rest of the world that embrace Australian native ingredients and pay homage to the indigenous custodianship who maintained the land for thousands of years.
They seek Australian identity in the products they craft, and their hope is that these Australian stories can one-day be heard on a global scale. Unico is part of the “New Australia” movement focusing on alternative varietals, sustainability, natural yeast, vegan friendly
