Discover this: Pequod Wine for Extra Terrestrials 2022

Christmas is on the horizon; let’s dive into something more fun, eh?

This Pequod Wine for Extra Terrestrials 2022 lobbed up in a pack of likely drinks from Canberra-based distributor Andrew McFadzean with zero context. No vintage, variety, anything. A clean slate.

Hot damn, it’s a cool wine.

Pequod is the work of Lerida Estate winemaker Paul Williams, making wines in tiny quantities, with no website, no info, and no obvious avenue to buy some. Just wine esoterica, with the labels to match. Art, not science.

This Tumbarumba Chardonnay (which I only worked out via some Instagram posts) has a real life to it. It’s hazy, reductive, a bit wild, solidsy, lemony, creamy, generous and yet crystalline. Tangy, great concentration, real flavour. What an expression. It’s like a lo-fi Chablis, with the stony, flinty yet creamy textural contrast smorgasbord.

Paul explained on Insta that his motivation was to make a ‘Franken Silvaner, but Australian and Chardonnay’ though it ‘ended up a little further south than that’.

I enjoyed this so much. It’s anything but mainstream, and delicious for it.

THE VERDICT

• Best drinking: nowish, no hurry
• Score (out of 20): 18.5
• Score (out of 100): 94
• Alcohol %: 13.7
• RRP (in $AUD): 49
• Winery website:
• Would I buy it?: absolutely