LATTA Vino is the experimental second-label of Owen Latta of Eastern Peake, the wines he's made at LATTA have helped him earn the title of Gourmet Traveler Wine Magazine Young Winemaker of the Year.
Second generation winemaker Owen Latta is a young gun from Ballarat, and lately he's been setting the Australian wine scene ablaze. He juggles two main projects, the premium wines of Eastern Peake and the more expressive, experimental wines under his Latta Vino range. Owen Latta over the past few years has proved himself to be one of Australia’s most daring and thoughtful winemakers.
His story doesn’t begin at the ripe young age (excuse the wine pun) of 15 years old. “Dad had an accident at the winery mid harvest and I stepped in,” says Latta, “I was doing the winemaking before and after school, whenever there were spare moments, and Dad was kind of instructing me and I was kind of going off what I had seen up to then.” Due to this Latta is has already complete over 20 vintages, which is pretty wild for a 30-something winemaker.
Vineyard management has always been highly considered and fairly low intervention, and the winemaking has taken a similar vein. Owen says “Dad never really fiddled too much with the wines and the vineyard was generally looked after with biological means, rather than chemical stuff,” Latta explains. “I took these ideas onboard and now apply it across both Eastern Peake and Latta wines.”
The fruit for each wine is sourced from vineyards run by old family friends and relative in the regions surrounding the Latta family’s property in Coghills Creek.
The fruit is sustainably grown and – except for the occasional small addition of SO2 at bottling – the wines are made without additions. Owen Latta just kicks goals all day. It's just what he does. Cracking wines made from cracking grapes, get involved!