It’s a Chameleon, a cool reptile that, besides the changing colour trick, also has the ability to independently rotate its eyes to focus simultaneously on different objects. This would be an easily justified link if we’d blended two batches together and said something about how we kept them separate, waiting for the right time etc. but considering this wine is a blend of Adelaide Hills Sauv Blanc, Eden Valley Riesling and Adelaide Hills Chardonnay, we’re looking in another direction.

The youngest member of our team, Alex, is mad, to say the least, on lizards and spent a significant amount of time lobbying me on the flight home from Africa to name a wine after ‘his’ Chameleon, which he befriended in Kenya.

Whilst getting stuck into a recently delivered batch of Godellos from Galicia, I said to the guys “we should look at everything we’ve got in oak to see if we can pull together a more textural, oxidative style of wine; don’t worry about the varieties, let’s just focus on the palate . . . and make sure it has a nice dose of intrigue” . . . and so we did.

I struggle to pick a dominant variety, the Riesling is aromatically pungent, almost entirely pressings, the SB is all passion fruit and nervosity whilst the Chardonnay is like a great chaperone, present, protective but in the background. At the time of writing this I’d drank more of this wine from the tank than from the bottle, but I know this is the sort of wine I love to drink, and equally importantly, proud to make. Alex can take the cred for the label.

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