Lumen Spring 2021 - Flipbook - Page 36
Taras did work that first vintage at Nepenthe,
and then returned for a few more while studying
Oenology at the University of Adelaide. And some
years later when Peter took over the former business
and established it as Revenir Winemaking, Taras
joined the team as winemaker.
“Taras was unconventional in many respects,
but there was also a degree of a cultivated
unconventionality about him,” said Peter.
“He was a sharp technical brain in the background,
he just liked to hide that under all the wool and
baggy clothes.”
While initially it may have started as a mentor-tomentee relationship, the exchange of knowledge
was certainly a two-way street, and eventually the
relationship went full circle.
“Watching Taras over the years, he was certainly
more open to change and evolution than old farts
like me,” Peter said.
“He was quite a free spirit in his wine making as
he was in his lifestyle. And that was good for me to
watch and observe and try and learn from because
fluidity of ideas is not a bad thing. And people like
me who have a slightly different upbringing and
different background, and are older, and all that sort
of stuff, get a bit more stuck in our ways.”
Michael Downer met Taras while he was studying
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THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE
at the University of Adelaide, with Taras a few years
ahead in his Oenology degree.
It wasn’t until Michael took up a harvest position at
Revenir Winery, where at the time Taras was assistant
winemaker to Peter Leske, they really got to know
each other and became friends.
“He was such a welcoming hands-wide-open type of
person,” said Michael.
“He really made you feel included in the amazing
world of Taras Ochota.”
Aside from the friendship they shared, Michael
says that as a mentor the ‘lessons’ were often “very
loose knit and chaotic”, and more often than not
were over a few bottles of wine. Michael remembers
being invited around to Lost in a Forest, the pizza
and wine bar in which Taras was part owner, and
instructed to bring a few bottles of wine to share.
When Michael arrived, there were a whole bunch of
Taras’s friends there too.
“I'd bring two different blend samples of a wine and
I'd use him and his other friends to give me a gauge
of which direction was better,” Michael said.
Not only was Taras generous in sharing his
knowledge, but also his connections. He was
instrumental in linking Michael up with US importer
Ronnie Sanders, encouraging Michael to drop off a
couple of bottles, and Taras would make sure to get
them in front of Ronnie when he came to town.
“In that sense, he was incredible at helping me share
my story and that of other winemakers in the area,
and the capabilities of some of us younger nextgeneration producers.”
Neighbour and friend, Adelaide Hills winemaker at
Gentle Folk Wines, fellow alumnus Gareth Belton,
said the best advice Taras gave to him was, “It's just
wine, it's just a drink. Get over it! And it's got to be
delicious. And if not, go and do something else. You
have one job: make wine. Try not to stuff it up.”
“At the end of the day we can get all caught up with
the ‘this and that’ of wine. But Taras is 100 per cent
right, in the end, it’s just a drink,” said Gareth.
Taras was like an older brother to Gareth and always
looking out for him.
“He’d rock up with a bowl of soup if I was sick, or
he'd just drop in for a beer if he heard I was stressed
out about something. Yeah, you knew he always had
your back.”
He was also a wonderful mentor.
“If I ever had a problem with something then he'd
be straight over, or say, ‘Bring me a little glass of it’,”
said Gareth.
Taras was also very specific in his wine making.
“His wines were visionary,” said Gareth.
