Ute Boot III: A Wine Event for the Conscious Consumer

At first glance, Son of Dot’s Ute Boot series is about drinking and celebrating natural wine. But the event has always had a bigger story to tell.

“Each one so far has been a progression of my hidden agenda, which is not so hidden, I think,” says founder Jay Marinis. That agenda? “Wrapping social-change issues in pop-culture events. Making them more digestible.”

To that end, for the third session on January 24, he’s placing a greater focus on the exchange of ideas and knowledge, limiting tastings to two hours before the program of expert speakers begins.

“This one is full-tilt social change,” he says. For Marinis – and the winemakers he reps under the Son of Dot name – the dialogue around wine is inherently tied up with conversations around land and culture, especially sustainability and regenerative agriculture.

“The first part of the day is about wine tasting with avant-garde producers who talk about regenerative farming, the slow and eventual decline of topsoil – they’re all very vocal about that. That’s the wines we represent, and we represent them because it’s a great in to have these conversations.”

Marinis has hand-picked producers who use organic and biodynamic fruit, including those in his Son of Dot stable – Commune of Buttons, Scintilla, Limus Wines and Travis Tausend. Basket Range Wines, Manon Wine, Lucy Margaux, Tom Shobbrook, The Other Right, Jauma, Frankly This Wine Was Made By Bob, BK Wines, Yeti and the Kokonut, Bink, Worlds Apart Wines and Just Enough Wines will also be pouring.

The event will be held at the Scenic Hotel in Norton Summit, which Marinis recently bought from longstanding publicans Herbie and Jane Horsnell with Enoch Yates from Golden Boy and Alistair Wells from the band Bad Dreems. (They’ve recently introduced a new menu and are currently in the midst of renovating.)

The producers will be stationed at utes (hence the name) in front of the hotel – with stunning views overlooking the city – and pouring between 12pm and 2pm (the wines will be available to purchase to drink in and take away).

The talks will begin at 2pm with a Welcome to Country by Kaurna, Narungga and Ngarrindjeri man Robert Taylor before speaker Sally Scales takes the stage. Scales was the youngest person to become chair of the APY Lands Executive Board and also helped develop the Uluru Statement from the Heart. “She’ll be talking about the Uluru Statement and the lack of Aboriginal voice in state parliament,” says Marinis.

Other speakers are SA Museum’s head of humanities John Carty; scientist and The Other Right winemaker Alex Shulkin, who’ll be talking “microbiology, land, soil, health and natural wine”; and Son of Dot teammate and microbiologist Lucien Alperstein, “who has worked with First Nations people in Tasmania on a fermentation project, giving back lost knowledge to peoples in that region,” says Marinis. Expect some words on “regenerative farming and fermentation and what it means to have a delicious fermented drink”.

“There’ll be questions, there’ll be answers, there’ll be tears shared and laughs had,” continues Marinis.

Rounding out the day is a program of live music by Django Rowe Quartet, Banjo Jackson, Blue Lagoon Band and Slow Mango, before DJ Mark Kamleh hits the decks. There’ll also be beer by Wildflower and food by Sunny’s Pizza and newly appointed Scenic Hotel chef, Dylan Marshall.

Ute Boot III is on Sunday January 24 from 12pm till late. Tickets are available online.