To those in the wine trade, Bryan Martin will need little introduction. This multitalented chef-turned-gun-winemaker has lit up the Canberra scene with his delicious and sometimes esoteric wines under his now cult-like Ravensworth wine label. Martin spent his formative winemaking years as the secret weapon of sorts at Clonakilla. As Tim Kirk’s right-hand man, he honed his winemaking craft working with some of the finest fruit in the country, working for one of the finest producers in the country. His experience working as a chef heightened his sensitivity to texture and most importantly flavour—something he has injected into the very foundation of his winemaking style.

“The idea is to load neutral spirit with heaps of flavour, then fortify the base wine balancing this with sweetness, either added or residual grape sweetness.” Bryan Martin, winemaker

More recently Martin has turned his hand to Vermouth and, wouldn’t you know it: where there’s smoke there’s fire. Outlandish Claims’ first release (2017) was a magnificent Grenache-based Vermouth spiked with Australian native botanicals and a mix of bitter roots like gentian, orris and angelica. Subsequent releases are based on Nebbiolo and use dried blood orange with cinchona (quinine bark) as the bitters. There’s also a white, currently based on Chardonnay and Roussanne varieties, which fuses golden queen peaches finger lime and quince, with a good seasoning of coriander seed, home-grown wormwood and dried gentian. Depending on the vintage, a Rosé can also make an appearance.

These small batch spirits are only made when vintage and climatic conditions suit. So, it feels all the more special when we do get a release, as it can be years in between incarnations—Outlandish Claims is only produced when great Ravensworth wine is produced.