The Archibald Wine Project

By Alex Russell on September 15, 2015 in Food

I’m always impressed with how wine producers band together in a time of need.

In 2008, an accident occurred at Wirra Wirra and a cellarhand was seriously injured. The winery was shut down while safety assessments were conducted. Other producers, themselves working under time constraints in a very tight vintage, were quick to offer their facilities to ensure that Wirra Wirra could still process its fruit. One winery even started the very next day.

In 2012, Sam Hughes, who some of you might have known from Vaucluse Cellars, passed away. He made fascinating wines and left behind two young daughters. Recently, various wine identities donated their grapes, material, time and labour to a label called ‘“For the Dandy in the Clos’”. Funds from these sales of these wines go into a trust for his Hughes’s daughters. Please buy up if you see them, please.
And there are many other similar stories of the wine producers coming together to help their own, including but few are more impressive than the Archibald Wine Project.

Michael Fragos is the chief winemaker and CEO of the well-regarded Chapel Hill winery in McLaren Vale. I spent a bit of time talking with him a few years ago. He struck me as incredibly passionate about what he does. This passion is reflected in some big awards that he has picked up along the way, including the 2007 International Winemaker of the Year in the International Wine & Spirits Competition.

In February this year, Michael and his wife Marianne received word that one of their three kids, Archie, had been diagnosed with desmoplastic small-round-cell tumour. Massive shock soon turned into steely determination to get Archie the best treatment available.

To enable this, the team at Chapel Hill decided to put together a wine, with sales to go towards Archie’s treatment. But this wasn’t just going to be just any old wine. This was going to be one of those wines that shows the wine community at its best.

Winemaker Bryn Richards called seven local wineries, who all of which donated a barrel of the best of their 2014 vintage to go into a blend. The team put together a GSM (Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre) with a splash of Tempranillo. They were absolutely ecstatic with their blend and all early reviews point towards a top drop.

But they also needed a label. So, to ensure there was a connection to the family, the design team at Woodscannon (who design labels, amongst other things) got the Fragos kids to each do a drawing. The artworks were converted into the labels and printed at Studio Labels – just another group business who were that was very more than happy to help out.

You just don’t see that kind of camaraderie in many other industries, do you?

There is a lot of passion and some very good juice that has gone into this wine. It’s an absolute bargain at $25, but there’s a lot more satisfaction to buying this wine drop than simply how it tastes.

At the time of writing, the wine had not yet launched, but you can register your interest at here: http://www.thearchibald.com.au./

It is the perfect wine to share with family. Drink up!