Tangerine Dreamin’... and the occasional snake.
HER NAME
SUZI
MAKES SIPS AT
SMALLFRY WINES
Say the words “chilled red” or “skin-contact”, and you’ll have us in a trance. Well, Suzi said both of these things within the first two minutes of our conversation, and we were hooked. Then once we sipped Smallfry… Hook, line and sinker.
Suzi & Wayne don’t mess about with their wines. In more technical terms, their vineyard is certified organic and biodynamic, and they’re truly passionate about minimal intervention wine-making. By sipping Smallfry, you’ll be saying farewell to strong flavours of oak or tannin (aka masculine and aggressive flavours). Suzi put it perfectly to us, “It’s exploring the prettiness and wonderful serendipity - capturing all those flavours that can come along the way through fermentation”.
We love that there are so many ways to drink Smallfry, and there’s almost a wine for every moment possible. The only thing Suzi doesn’t enjoy about her wonderful winemaking life? Snakes. Yikes.
“The wonderful thing about minimal intervention wine or natural wine - it’s a new evolving style that’s happening and it’s about not using heaps and heaps of oak or tannin, and those masculine and aggressive flavours. It’s exploring the prettiness and wonderful serendipity - capturing all those flavours that can come along the way through fermentation.”
SIP’ER: What is your key role within Smallfry? Is there anyone else that leads it with you?
SUZI: I’m a viticulturist, along with Wayne. Our vineyard is certified organic and biodynamic, and we work together on the decisions about how we’re going to grow things, winemaking and the wine styles. I do most of the wine buying in our house, so I know what sort of wine we like. I think women are buying more and more of the wine these days, which is great! I think retail has picked up on that quite quickly. Go us, girls!!
SIP’ER: Power to the women to buy the wine. Super important job.
SUZI: They’re not going to stick with the Chardonnay anymore! [laughs] We love that lighter style: Lower alcohol, lighter reds that can be chilled, skin-contact whites as well. Skin-contact whites are more Wayne’s bag, he’s done really well with making Tangerine Dream year after year, a product that’s close to both of our hearts. We’re in the Barossa Valley and most of the Barossa is Shiraz, and we’ve just got this monoculture of Shiraz out here. Smallfry has 16 varieties and our biggest selling product is a white - wooo!
SIP’ER: That’s what we love about your wines - you’ve absolutely nailed the chilled red. We never knew a red wine could be so light and refreshing!
SUZI: I love whole bunch wines as well, I really quite enjoy that reductive character. Wayne’s not completely sold on that one… so Smallfry is an interesting merge of both of our palettes in terms of the direction we’re going in.
SIP’ER: How did you and Wayne start?
SUZI: Well, I’m a Hunter Valley girl, grew up in NSW on Mount Dangar vineyards in Sandy Hollow which was originally planted by my dad. I went away to art school, then came back and got a job managing a vineyard nearby. I thought I’d paint on the side, but it didn’t really work out like that… Viticulture is full-time. It’s not as part-time as I thought. So increasingly I went more that way. I went to university, which is where I met Wayne, and I thought it’d be interesting to see what South Australia was like. So, we went there and it’s such a bigger place in terms of vineyards.
[SCENE: Dogs running around under the table]
Sorry - are my dogs annoying you?! They’re two jack russells under the table…
SIP’ER: [laughs] we were wondering what that noise was!
SUZI: They’re very excited because it’s nearly dinner time!!
Yeah, sorry - the Barossa - it was only the big corporates that had moved in around then, so there was a lot of money going into vineyards. Largely, the Barossa was still family-based farms, which generally had a whole lot of different varieties on them. It always struck me as a wonderful thing. But now those families’ succession planning hasn’t worked, and they’ve suffered. So it’s increasingly more corporate-owned. We were very lucky to pick up our vineyard from Ken Schliebs who was 75 when we bought his vineyard back in 2007.
SIP’ER: Oooh that’s where the name of the Schliebs Garden wine comes from!
SUZI: Yes! He’s a very interesting character. We still bring him back to the farm and he’s very impressed to see how all of that’s going. We’ve been trying to get some of the history from him about the farm, and he was saying how his grandmother did all of the purchasing. She ended up buying some of the neighbouring land, which is where we picked up some of the trousseau vines and some cabernet and grenache. He didn’t use very many chemicals, thankfully - we don’t use any chemicals at all and we fully certified the place. It’s quite a big deal to have that certification, and it really does mean: No chemicals!
SIP’ER: What’s been your career highlight so far?
SUZI: I mean, there’s lots! It’s been so fun creating Smallfry and seeing that grow. It was wonderful last year with Tangerine Dream making the Top 10 Favourite Drinks. That was really cool. Because it really is a wine that’s not conventional, but it’s something that’s been a saviour for our vineyard and our business. To be able to make a wine that uses the least popular varieties.
SIP’ER: That’s a great success story.
SUZI: Yeah and that wine goes all around the world. That’s been fabulous.
SIP’ER: And we’re guessing that you’d pair a Smallfry Tangerine Dream with that career highlight!
SUZI: Yes, definitely. It goes really well with food too. Dumplings, Korean food - it can handle spice. My favourite thing lately is Japanese and all the wonderful pickles.
SIP’ER: Oooooh. Yum.
SUZI: The wonderful thing about minimal intervention wine or natural wine - it’s a new evolving style that’s happening and it’s about not using heaps and heaps of oak or tannin, and those masculine and aggressive flavours. It’s exploring the prettiness and wonderful serendipity - capturing all those flavours that can come along the way through fermentation.
SIP’ER: What’s the toughest part of your job that not many people may know about?
SUZI: The toughest part about Smallfry is… snakes. I hate snakes!
SIP’ER: Hahahaha. Snakes are the worst?!
SUZI: I keep thinking we gotta move to New Zealand and it would be such a dream to not have to worry about looking out for Brown Snakes. I’ve never been bitten…
SIP’ER: Oh, thank god.
SUZI: Gives me the heebie jeebies whenever I see them. We do leave our grass as is, so we’ve got a beautiful habitat for snakes…
SIP’ER: And what drink do you feel like after you’ve had a full day of seeing snakes?!
SUZI: Probably a gin, rather than a wine.
SIP’ER: Straight gin or…?
SUZI: Gin and tonic with some dried orange from the garden.
SIP’ER: What is your favourite wine you produce?
SUZI: The Pimpernel Trousseau. It’s whole bunched so it’s got that lovely reductive flavour, it’s a ruby coloured wine so it can take chill. I really love Pinot Noir but it’s not tough enough for our warmer climates. Trousseau can though, it’s one of the first wines we pick - it ripens really early so we can capture it while it’s still got good acidity. The artist that did the label for it is my good friend Rob Brown, who also did the label for Tangerine Dream. He gave me the print years ago, and as soon as we made Pimpernel and we tasted it, we thought “ah, that’s going to be the perfect label for it!”. And it is, so it’s a great marriage.
SIP’ER: Which wine brings the most joy and happy memories?
SUZI: Stella Luna and now Starry Starry Night Cinsault. The label on the Cinsault is done by my daughter, Stell. That was at a printing workshop that we went to together. We were very creative that day… Stell was 12! She’s got a great little knack for drawing.
SIP’ER: What do you want people to take away from the experience after drinking Smallfry?
SUZI: Hopefully that it’s got the sense of place that we do have here. That you don’t have to add a whole lot of stuff - fake tannin and wood - to make a good wine. Hopefully it makes people think about the importance of supporting organic and biodynamic producers.
SIP’ER: What’s the best way to drink Smallfry?
SUZI: There’s so many ways! I love humidity. That’s the only thing I miss - down here it’s very dry so we don’t get many storms. My favourite time is when it’s humid. I don’t think we make it anymore but we had a Barossa Riesling - and it’s not even my favourite style of wine, but in humid weather and when it’s ice cold, it’s just the best. There’d be this big great storm about to come over. It was like sucking lime with a little bit of sweetness.
SIP’ER: If you had to match one of your products with your personality, which would it be?
SUZI: I’m a Libra-n so I can’t make up my mind! Probably a red that wants to be a white. A skin-contact Pinot Gris is good for that.
SIP’ER: What drink do you crave when you’re at your happiest?
SUZI: Hmmm… A happy drink…
SIP’ER: Gin for a bad day and the snakes…
SUZI: So for the good days, I like champagne - love the bubbles. Or I do love a Pet Nat.
SIP’ER: Bubbles are always great fun.