Slow Lane is a small winery ran by Federica Marzetti & Dom Smith, based 15 minutes south of Mount Gambier, South Australia (Dom’s hometown).
Slow Lane was based in McLaren Vale for six years, where we were both making wine & working in different vineyards, but something was pulling us down here.
All of the signs were there: Australia’s two youngest volcanoes (Mount Gambier & Mount Schank) only 10 minutes apart, the influence of limestone, healthy rainfall, a very cool climate & incredible diurnal range.
Eventually we pulled the trigger. Federica, who’s been living in Australia since 2020 after leaving Italy, was somehow convinced to shift her life again to Mount Gambier to explore the grape growing & winemaking potential down here.
We’re now able to spend a lot more time in vineyards, which is important to us. Now we are growing some fruit ourselves, through sharing a couple vineyard leases with good friends of ours at Limus Wine.
We’ve also been purchasing fruit from another vineyard in Mount Gambier since 2021, & we are sourcing fruit from some other local vineyards that are also farming organically.
In the winery, we try our best to let the vineyards do the talking.