2025 Young Gun of Wine Winner - Owen Latta
“At the 19th Annual Young Gun of Wine Awards, the Young Gun of Wine trophy goes to Owen Latta of Eastern Peake and Latta Wines. Since 2007, we’ve scoured the country for the best emerging talent, always looking for new ideas, for creative mavericks, and for those unwilling to compromise. This year’s Young Gun of Wine is awarded to a winemaker who exemplifies these values, and who made his first vintage before he could legally have a drink – Owen Latta of Eastern Peake and Latta Vino. 🏆 Now in charge of his family winery, Eastern Peake, where he crafts a tight range of pinot noir and chardonnay-based wines, and with his own négociant label, Latta Vino, to play with more experimental techniques and off-the-beaten-path varieties, Owen’s winemaking effortlessly straddles generational divides and the traditional/natural dichotomy. 💪 With his ability to honour family tradition with Eastern Peake, and at the same time push the envelope with his daring Latta Vino, Latta is a rare talent indeed – and a worthy winner of the 19th annual Young Gun of Wine trophy” - Young Gun of Wine
About
‘Winemaker Owen Latta’s age belies a wealth of experience, making him a deserving winner of the Young Winemaker Medal for his quality Eastern Peake and Latta Vino wines.
Second generation winemaker Owen Latta is the Ballarat kid setting the Australian wine scene on fire. Between the premium wines of Eastern Peake and the more expressive, avant garde releases under his own, eponymous Latta Vino range, Latta has shown his mettle as one of Australia’s most thoughtful and daring winemakers. “ The purity and natural architecture possible from just grapes and skins is something Latta is actively seeking.”
Indeed, there are few people in Australia so adept with lo-fi winemaking, eking out maximum flavour, vitality, freshness and poise, including when no sulphur is added at all. “I am increasingly seeing that long, slow maturation prior to bottling helps no-sulphur wines,” Latta explains. “The purity and natural architecture possible from just grapes and skins is something I am actively seeking in terms of feel, structure and balance.” While Latta’s career has not been long it shows an incredible depth of experience that places him at the apex of winemaking in Australia.’
2025 Ex Nihilo Pinot Gris
The translation of ex nihilo “from nothing” feels particularly apt for this vintage.
Going into Season 2025, expectations for this site were modest at best. The lead-up to harvest was exceptionally dry and unusually early, yet the site delivered one of the best Pinot Gris crops we’ve seen to date.
The vineyard is of course long-term growers, the Lacey family, whose property lies near Tarrington in far south-west Victoria. Vineyard was established in the late 1990s, the site has consistently proven itself as an exceptional home for Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir.
When Pinot Gris was first planted here, it was still considered an alternative variety on the Australian wine scene. The Laceys were contract growers for a large wine brand searching for ideal sites in the late ’90s — remarkable when you consider how mainstream Pinot Gris/Grigio has become over the past 25 years.
With Pinot Gris I want to gain as much vibrancy & deliciousness as possible from this light red grape variety, half is whole bunch pressed to produce a textured white & the other half is destemmed for skin contact over a 3-10 days in small open fermenters to gain as much as I can from the fruit without getting too much tannin & phenolics.
All of the wine is fermented & raised in various casks of 228, 300, 500, 600L 1500L formats, plus stainless, Left to rest on full lees undisturbed, it’s then racked & estate bottled. A small amount of Sulphur added prior to bottling.
The Winefront review by Mike Bennie
Published on 3 March 2026
"From Tarrington and the Lacey family. Half the fruit is pressed off, the other half gets skin contact for three to ten days. Then off to barrels of various sizes for a spell.
This is a great release. It drinks like class rosé while also having the detail and tension of quality orange wines. That being said, it walks like a rosé and quacks like a rosé for the most part. Faint pear notes, crunchy red cherries steeped in cherry juice, light alpine herb and botanical floral notes, a crack of white pepper and dashes of watermelon rind and cranberry drink. It feels dry, shows off a suite of fine, lacy tannin, finishes with pucker and more botanical-laced freshness, almost as per a rosé vermouth. Straight up banger."
94 Points
2024 Rattlesnake Contact Blanc
Fun! Wild ideas & Experimental batches. An opposite direction to terroir, the usual mindset in this cellar! Classic varieties being pushed to see what new personalities we can get out of them. Great vineyards also play a big role here to back up the texture, fruit & acid profiles.
Rattlesnake each year is made up of many different skin contact ferments, riesling, Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris & Grenache, all seem to work harmoniously together to produce a madly delicious, quenching, exotic skin contact wine that punches above and delivers time & time again.
Winefront Review by Mike Bennie
Posted on 28 December 2024
"A neat little infographic on the back label lets us know that this is about a third viognier, a third riesling, then the other third is a blend of sauvignon blanc, pinot gris and grenache. Various regimes of skin contact are employed across the varieties. Four different vineyards are used as sources. The resulting wine is ‘an opposite direction to terroir’, offers Owen Latta, and more about the application of winemaking to make a style.
It’s a supple and lightly chalky, almost medium-bodied white wine of curious, distinct, unusual but very pleasing and refreshing aromas and flavours. A mix of just-ripe red berry, just ripe pineapple, salted crackers, mandarin, preserved lemon, barley sugar water going on. Good energy to this wine, the sum of parts makes for interest, not necessarily complexity, but it’s a vibrant and thirst-quenching style. The x-factor of that textural dryness really pleasing. Great drinking ensues."
91 Points
2025 WHAT-A-MELON
I love producing what a melon each year, I’m always so heavily fixated on terroir so its great to have an outlet to use my full colour palette to produce a fun yet very serious textured rosé . As always this is produced from some pretty epic vineyard sites with passionate long term growers of ours throughout Western Victoria.
Vintage 2026 saw some serious fruit go towards this:
Grenache & Syrah grown organically by Cory Hope in the Pyrenees harvested once flavour hits the full ripeness required, Nebbiolo grown by the John Family in Landsborough Pyrenees, Pinot Gris from Tarrington grown by the Laceys & finally Pinot Noir grown by us at home base in Coghills Creek. All batches were all whole bunch pressed fermented on full solids & left to rest on full lees for 9 months, blended then domaine bottled once ready.
The Winefront review by Mike Bennie
Published on 3 March 2026
"A spectrum of fruit allows winemaker Owen Latta to get expressive on his rosé wine. Texture is the goal, interest is the side hustle, variety is the spice. It’s built from grenache, syrah, nebbiolo, pinot gris, pinot noir. Pressed off, set on lees time, blended for your pleasure.
Pretty pink wine, a touch orange-y looking too. Perfume of rose hip tea, watermelon rind, green mango, dried pear, pickled lime. The palate a more soft, understated affair; wild strawberry as a subtle note, green almond, red apple, faint peach ice tea and rose water all conspiring. It has a pleasing cloudiness to texture but gets a mandarin freshness thrown in. Quietly complex, easy on the gullet, a general side step from rosé convention for the better. Clever wine."
93 Points
2024 Jurassique Blanc
Super Textured, extended lees contact, great natural acidity, low sulphur, salty, vinous, oxidative handling, boundary pushing.
Method: Ouillé
Vineyard: Tarrington
Variety: Chardonnay
Planted: 2001
Elevation: 201 metres
Soil: Free draining red buckshot soil
So so great to have this cuveé back after none was produced in 2023.
As you can probably guess from the name of this wine, the first four letters have a bit of an influence on my white wine consumption from time to time. I love textured whites, long lees contact, low sulphur, salty things, oxidative things, boundary pushing things, things that don’t make sense but do make good sense… if you know what I mean.
I've always had a bit of a fascination with the wines from the Jura & natural leaning burgundy producers as well as all the ones in the middle.
Don’t get me wrong my one true love is beautiful, Fine classic Chardonnay from near & far - it's one of the worlds greatest grapes that can be a kaleidoscope of styles.
The fruit for this wine is grown on lovely red volcanic soils down in Tarrington far south Western Victoria at the Laceys vineyard which is 210m elevation.
Chardonnay was harvested at just over 11.5 baumé, whole bunch pressed on a long slow cycle in the pneumatic press, transferred to 228 & 300L French & Austrian casks, indigenous yeasts.
Again this season I decided to keep my barrels topped up on a more relaxed schedule to gain some oxidative/texture.
12 months in barrel full malo, full lees contact with no interference, once racked from barrel it spends a further 3 months resting in tank prior to estate bottling.
The Winefront review by Mike Bennie
Published on 3 March 2026
"The 2023 vintage saw none of this wine produced. Chardonnay with a relaxed approach to topping up to give a high five to Jura inspirations of the same. From fruit grown on the Lacey vineyard in Tarrington.
A salty, lightly oxidative white wine with tart, green apple, brine and salted almonds, alpine herb and white pepper notes dashed with grapefruit and sizzling cumquat tang. Savouriness is a big part of the wine, the length and persistence impressive. A gloss to texture, a kind of curious richness but that’s whipped away by the freaky, minerally acidity pretty quickly. Big energy, deliciousness, complexity and interest here."
94 Points
2021 Quality Release Grenache
I've always taken sangiovese & cabernet sauvignon from the shays flat site when permitted. So when the grenache became available it was very exciting to be able to produce grenache from such a beautifully well farmed vineyard. Farmed by cory hope all certified organic. About 15% whole bunch, basket pressed after a week & a bit, élevage for 12 months in 228l & 500l casks, zero so2. It's a pretty serious wine with loads of detail, a very fine expression of shays flat. Such a quality release.
2023 Illusive Nebbiolo
Illusive.. it seems real or possible, but its definitely not.. trying to emulate styles from Piedmont, Valtellina etc here from exceptional Australian sites seems like the impossible. Some close some not so… We’ve found our way with chardonnay in this great country but Nebbiolo is still one of the great challenges to get right. I’m excited about the future.
I’ve been working with Nebbiolo for over a decade now, how time flys.. My connection to it began in 1991, when my father Norman planted a row at our domaine Eastern Peake, guided by local viticulturist guru Max Loader. Our site proved to be way too cold, that one row is still there, it still sets fruit but never ripens. I probably should pull it out yet I love the nostalgia & be reminded not to stray from Pinot Noir & Chardonnay (also good vine material for those keen to try it elsewhere warmer).
The fruit for this wine comes from Cameron and Robert John (a father-son team with similar Trevor Mast ties like us), who’ve been pioneering Nebbiolo in the Pyrenees since the early 2000s. Steve Pannell originally suggested they plant it for Hardy’s, drawn to the region’s climate, altitude, red ferrous clays, quartz, and ironstone. I can only imagine the challenges they’ve faced over the years as well.
The winemaking is super relaxed and hands off approach as per usual. Fermented in 4,000L wax-lined concrete fermenters, 10% whole bunch, three harvest dates. Indigenous yeast, long daily pump overs, and extended 6 week macerations for each pick. Basket-pressed, then aged 18 months in 600L Stockinger demi-muids. Racked to stainless tank & aged for a further 6 months in stainless bottled in July 2025. A very challenging season being much cooler than the average, I feel the long elevage has delivered something quite nice.
The Winefront review by Gary Walsh
Published on 10 September 2025
"Owen Latta said this wine broke him, and he hasn’t produced one since, though maybe will in the next vintage. I guess I’m something of a Nebbiolo specialist in this country, so it’s nice of him to send in it in for some sort of opinion. I get sent a lot of wines from Piedmont, and so many, though perhaps less of the local kind. Not sure why. The Beechworth producers seem to pass me by.
There’s a mahogany and minty character to this wine, and it’s kind of marginal in terms of ripeness, though it does have some energy too. I’m thinking poached strawberry, almond, a gum leaf litter and fern perfume, white pepper, along with some sweet leafy decay and dried rose. It’s frisky in acidity, strawberry and cinnamon, fresh tomato, raspberry pip, with a slightly gummy finish of good length. I like the squiggly Etch-A-Sketch tannin here, and the wine has a distinct and cool personality. It’s nice, if not a little unusual in terms of Nebbiolo."
92 Points
(Image: Latta Vino - www.lattavino.com.au)