Sami-Odi

Fraser McKinley has a long history in Australia’s storied Barossa Valley with experience working at Standish Wine Company and Torbreck Vintners. In 2006 Fraser started his own small winery, Sami-Odi, producing very limited quantities of the most exquisite Syrah (don’t call it Shiraz!). Fraser selects plots in some of Barossa’s finest vineyards and vinifies them separately and then blends them together into specific cuvées that exemplifies their strengths, showing a unique expression of the Barossa.

Fraser’s simple yet attentive farming philosophy remains unchanged, with paramount importance placed on prudence, organics and our alignment with lunar rhythms. All cuts are made amid descending moons and with the greatest of care, yearning to produce fine canes, balanced clusters and small berries with firm and resilient skins. Shoot thinning, desuckering and crop paring are all integral parts of our annual cycle with an ideal to farm as simply as possible, resulting in the harvest of healthy fruit early in the season that requires no adjustments and little intervention.

Sami-Odi’s cellar practices continue this premise; hand sorted clusters endure their primary fermentation at cool temepratures, without the use of destemming, pumps, yeasts or enzymes. The whole clusters are gently pigeaged by foot prior to basket pressing into Burgundian Pièces where they complete both their primary and malolactic fermentations. To encourage the retention of naturally occurring carbon dioxide (a by-product of fermentation and a natural preservative and antioxidant) the wines are not racked or clarified during their elevage and remain on their lees until they are assembled.