Watch: Handmade With Benson & The Mooch
Oh, yes, we love a bit of sip, don’t we?
Especially when that sip is homegrown, foot stomped, and handmade. A nice glass of the fine stuff is something to be appreciated, and we are grateful that Australian boutique wine producer, Benson & The Mooch, are taking the time to make something miles more elevated than the slop we normally drink.
The seasonal nature of their practice makes for very limited batches – wine in a series, once a year, hand stomped, much loved. Where other major wineries will pick a grape and sell it to you in a bottle within a year’s time, the process of making B+TM’s lovely beverage – from crop to grape selection to barrel to bottle – is a matter of many, many, many, so many months, and the limited capacity that comes with utilizing only the best ingredients with a preference for organic, is there until it’s gone.
All of this to say, it is delicious, probably nutritious, and, from berry to bottle, Handmade.
B&M It’s been a hot minute since we started putting this video together, obviously a lot has changed, but before we get into that, how does watching your Hand-Made piece feel?
A real Hot Minute! Feels nice to revisit the process and become a part of the audience, now that we have stepped back from wine making, I think it makes this video and the processes we followed even more special. It's always hard to speak about yourself or sell your own wine or impart your product on someone so to watch someone else’ beautiful interpretation of it all really solidifies what a special process it was.
Anything you said in there that you caught your fancy? You guys both stated in the video that there were things you wanted to achieve moving into the future, how’s all that panned out?
It's nice to see that our core values have never changed. Seeing as B+M was/is based on a twenty year friendship we always said that we wouldn't let it get in the way of any life changes, lifestyle choices or anything like that. So, I think we said that then and we still say it now. We have put wine making on Ice in the capacity that B+M used to be to focus on Family, Travel and new adventures. For me (Joel) wine making, although seasonal, also took super big chunks of time away from my family of three kids, because the product is time sensitive on and off for big chunks of time away just wasn't synonymous with giving myself to my family and also my restaurant. And I think for Benson it's the same thing but not being tied down to these big stints when there's other things he'd like to do, see and be a part of in the world.
I think we've both just always wanted to achieve a feeling of content, so whatever fills that cup with content we will have a little bit of that thanks.
Joel, you dabbled in multiple levels of fermentation before finally landing on your current business Ciros Pizza in Thirroul. Do you wanna tell us a bit about that?
I think Ciro's is just an extension and a narrowing down of what I learnt from wine making + doing business with mates. For me Ciro's is a product I love and a product I love to offer just like B+M but the only difference is I don't have to shop around to sell it, which feels like such a luxury compared to the wine industry. I think one of the hard things with wine making wasn't the wine making itself, but having to put yourself out there to sell the product which just wasn't exactly our passion. We didn't get into wine making because we had a passion for sales.
So, to now have people come to my (+ my partners) restaurant and enjoy the product and come back without having to chase them up (like the wine industry) its a pure joy. And the amazing thing is we sell so much B+M at the restaurant and we get that direct feedback, love and gratification for the wine in real time. It's actually been such a good platform for B+M and the local community to experience it all and hear the stories.
But yeah, Ciro's is just an extension of what Benson and I learnt and an extension of creativity and filling that cup. Oh, and a faith in one's tastebuds.
Benson, you ended up travelling and making wine in Chile. It looked insane, can you tell us a bit more about that? Also how was the wave of your life? Send me that clip!
Chile was amazing! I found myself on the banks of the Biobio river, making wine with my hands and feet from vines that were 100’s of years old. Roberto Henriques was the head winemaker along with his core team. No bullshit just people doing what they love, working hard in a remote and humble region of southern Chile. Sometimes I wish I had never left.
Haha yeah, it was a special wave. It taught me a lot, I will never forget that one.
I heard you guys have made some wine specifically for the restaurant. So you guys are taking a break from making wine, what’s the deal with stock, any left? Can people still buy it?
Yeh i'm hoping that once every two years or so we can Ciro's + B+M collectively make some wine (a small amount), some cider, limoncello, whatever and just have fun with it. We've got limited stock left online on our website - get it there
What's the future of the company look like? Do you think you’ll dive back in or is it just not sustainable? Outside of wine, what do you two have planned?
I don't think we will make big batches again but hopefully continue limited runs through Ciro's and just keep the mind ticking over with the how to's of winemaking, and surely we will have to teach the kids one day. We will try and get some travel in together, and some waves in the meantime.