Latta

This is the culmination of a long-standing desire of Owen Latta to make wines from small plantings in the Pyrenees, Grampians and Macedon regions. Eastern Peake, owned by the Latta family, makes wine from the Ballarat region, and the rationale was to avoid confusing the nature of the 2 operations. He says he has empathy with the growers he works with from when he and his father were themselves contract grapegrowers for others. The degree of that empathy is fortified by the fact that the growers have been known to the Latta family for over 15 years. The wines are, to put it mildly, unconventional. -JAMES HALLIDAY