They still reminisce about this wine's conception. Back in the days when Sam smiled and Alastair was witty, working with Verdelho for the first time in his adopted home in QLD in a XXXX haze. Tasting through bucket loads of local examples and then thinking, yeah, fuck that, let's do the opposite.

Many would say stupid, something we were all too used to (fair enough really), but for them it just made sense. Such a beautifully aromatic variety with high acid and more than enough tropical punch to deal with some oxidative handling.

Konpira Maru started, as many great ideas do, as an idea born from two mates having a beer at the pub. Working in the retail, production and education sectors of the wine industry for many years, we were searching for our own creative outlet. Sharing similar viticultural, winemaking and beer-drinking values, we set out on our vinous journey and, from these humble beginnings, produced the first vintage in 2014, which resulted in just 600 bottles.

We’d been frustrated at how expensive interesting wines were, the wines we were wanting to drink, and how we couldn’t just crack a bottle mid-week on our meagre wages. So we set out to make interesting wines with minimal intervention but maximum care - wines you could afford to have with a bowl of spaghetti on a Wednesday night.

Thus was born the Konpira Maru mission statement: make mid-week wines great again. Make wines that were full of character, with a focus on affordability and a high drinkability. Wines that aren’t so expensive that you feel the need to talk about them the whole time during your meal, you can just enjoy the company you're with (and have another bottle)!