Jauma

We've known James since the very beginning of his winemaking career, back in the heady days of Natural Selection Theory – a collaborative experiment in natural winemaking with fellow juice juggernauts Tom Shobbrook, Anton Van Klopper and Sam Hughes. The four were all finding their feet and concocting wild wine ideas together.

Without doubt, James has always stood on the front line of the natural wine movement in this country and helped forge a path that so many dynamic makers and growers have since followed. He has always been so incredibly thoughtful in his intentions but ever so precise in the winery. Passionate and even dogmatic, but definitely not idealistic.

Erskine has a list of qualifications, experience and achievements as long as your arm. After studying to be a chef, followed by a move to Germany to work as a sommelier and a stint in Austria making wine, he returned to Australia where he completed an honours degree in Agricultural Science while working in some of Adelaide’s best restaurants. After some further study at the prestigious UC Davis in the USA, James again returned home to Adelaide to work full-time as a sommelier. During this time, he was awarded the Gourmet Wine Traveller Sommelier of the Year Award, co-duxed the Court of Master Sommelier exams, won the Working With Wine Fellowship and was a Len Evans Scholar – bloody hell!

But the allure of winemaking proved too strong and he left his burgeoning somm career to make wine in his home state. He spent some time working with the Bowe Lees team in the Adelaide Hills, where he met Anton Von Klopper (Lucy M) and did some moonlighting for Pete Schell (Spinifex). Then in 2010, he started Jauma and the rest is history!

Fast forward to today and Jauma is firing on all cylinders: 100% McLaren Vale, 100% natural and 100% organic practices; zero sulphur, zero additions, zero fining and zero filtration... But we don't just want to talk about S02 (or lack there of), you need to know about the sites! James works with five vineyards across McLaren Vale, each one meticulously and organically managed by one of two viticulturalists (Fiona Wood and David Gartlemann) James has worked with for many years. Their express aim is to preserve the vines for 100 years or more, so every resource is deployed to organic farming and soil maintenance, ensuring the longevity of the sites that they work with.

In the winery, James puts a huge amount of focus and energy into how he can do nothing. Anyone who knows about winemaking will tell you this takes more thinking and hard work than commercial winemaking. He gently coaxes the greatest expression he can from each vineyard without imposing on the fruit. He’s a sucker for texture, something clear as day in his wines, so skin contact is used extensively as well as a myriad of vessels: amphora, steel, wood and fibreglass. There are no additions whatsoever... None... Ever. These are the epitome of earth-to-glass wines: clean, pure and so expressive of site.

Having had the pleasure of knowing James for many years, we know that he is sincere and thoughtful in his intentions, authentic in his approach, incredibly precise in the winery and insanely passionate about his craft. These wines belong on the dining tables of the best restaurants in Australia; they are deep, structured and wonderfully characterful.