2024 Delinquente Screaming Betty Vermentino

WINEMAKER: Con-Greg Grigoriou
REGION: Riverland, SA
VARIETY: Vermentino
VITICULTURE: Organic/Biodynamic

Vermentino from the Bassham Family Organic and Biodynamic vineyard in Barmera. Wild fermented in stainless steel, the wine also spent 6 weeks on fine lees, stirred twice weekly, giving it a beautiful, textural edge not often found in Australian Vermentino’s – our reference point is Sardinia and Liguria.

Ripe green apple and that classic sort of walnut savouriness up front, this years interpretation has that fuzzy, acid driven, salty mouth feel amped right up. Bags of flavour - preserved lemon, briny and savoury, with a tropical, pineapple syrup background. Made for summer BBQ – grilled fish and oregano bread please.

Con-Greg Grigoriou grew up on a vineyard in the Riverland, South Australia, where his father has managed wineries for over 35 years. A few years ago, while working for an advertising agency in Melbourne, he tasted his first truly interesting Riverland wine and something clicked - why weren’t people producing high-quality wines in his home region?

Greg’s idea for Delinquente Wine Co was to take advantage of the Riverland’s small vineyards planted with Southern Italian varieties, which are suited to the region’s dry Mediterranean climate. He sources grapes from trusted growers many of whom he has know his whole life, who work organically. In the cellar Greg takes this organic philosophy forward, all his wines are small-batch and single-vineyard, fermented in stainless steel with wild yeast and without acid adjustments. His aim is to make wine that is pure, drinkable and delicious - or as he would put it, “smashable”.