Pare Wines

Hailing from Colorado, Ansel Ashby was intent on using his Bachelor of Arts in creative writing as a foundation for pursuing wine journalism. That led to a vintage stint at Cambridge Road in Martinborough, where the writing side began to take a backseat to the practical one. Vintages in the Adelaide Hills, Great Southern and at Soter in Oregon’s Willamette Valley followed. So too did a Masters of Viticulture and Oenology from the University of Adelaide, and a resolve to settle down and explore prime sites across South Australia. Firstly, that was under his Gatch label, and now under Pare Wines with business partner Andrew Williams. The label was a Covid birth, but the foundation is a long-held belief in the primacy of focusing on single sites that are ideally suited to variety, then to make the wines in a gentle way, coaxing and framing, and never intruding. The 1st release of a Blewitt Springs grenache pair and a Kenton Valley, Adelaide Hills, chardonnay are likely to be joined by other subregional offerings soon. And on the evidence of the excellent debut, that promises to be very exciting indeed. -MARCUS ELLIS