Babche: Wines Like Grandma Made 'Em

In a world where the search term “wine science” returns forty-three million Google results, using traditional wine-making techniques and processes has become maverick.

Nothing added, nothing taken away. Just grapes. It’s a beautiful ideal.  A pure expression of the “terroir”, as the French put it.  A bottle of wine that speaks of not only the grapes from whence it came, but a wine with a sense of place and time, a fleeting taste that could have only come from that particular block in that particular vineyard, in that particular year, never to grace our stemware or pass our lips again.

This is exactly what Niki Nikolovski and Tim Byrne from Babche Wines on the Bellarine Peninsula are attempting to bottle.

Niki grew up in Toronto, Canada and spent “about twenty consecutive summers in Macedonia living with (her) grandparents in a rural community.”

She worked in Health Sciences “in a sterile lab, with a white lab coat,” for a decade in Toronto before pulling the plug and jumping ship for the vineyard.  “I used to take my vacation time from my former job to work harvests abroad. Everyone thought it was nuts, but it felt vital. Slowly, it became impossible to return to a workplace that didn’t involve rolling hills and blue skies. Lots of gruel and grime too! Don’t get me wrong.”

“I found a photo of me in ripped jeans and cow shit smeared on my hands as I made my own fertiliser for the vineyard, and thought that was more like it.”

“A rural surrounding was healthier for me,” Niki emphasises, “And I ached for it.  I moved to the Bellarine Peninsula in 2016 where I met Tim and haven’t looked back since.”

Tim spent his formative years in country Victoria, moving from the family home, in Shepparton, to Warrnambool to study Marine and Freshwater Science, which Tim describes as “a time of growth and social fulfilment… which led to no work.”

“Travel then became the focus and for the larger part of my early twenties I did any job that would raise enough cash to buy a plane ticket.” After eventually returning to Australia to get a ‘proper job’, Tim landed in a laboratory that did quality control for wine packaging, and so his focus shifted and a lifelong passion for vinification took root.

“I enrolled at CSU to study Winemaking and for six years studied and worked in the wine industry. In 2015 I was appointed Head Winemaker and Vineyard Manager of a reputable winery and found happiness in (my) career.  After meeting Niki, I found happiness in my life.”

Babche is an affectionate term used in Macedonian and similar Slavic languages for Grandma or Nanna. Every morning, without fail, Niki calls her grandma, “an absolute magical human” (who turned 99 this year). The conversation always begins with, “Hi Babche…”, Tim heard that line every morning for almost a year.

“(The name) would stand as a nod to the matriarchs in our families (including my OG Babche)”, says Niki, “who made wine in this style, by hand and unadulterated.”

And when they say unadulterated, they mean it, “I mean… hand-cranked basket presses, gravity-fed, minimal use of fancy equipment and aggressive movement of wine, and zero additives and more care taken in the vineyard,” Niki explains.

“Over the course of wine becoming commercialised and scaled we’ve lost hands-on techniques and also some old methods. For instance, orange wine (can be) seen as a maverick move but it’s an extraordinarily old tradition in other parts of the world. So in a way, we’re reinventing tradition.  To be able to label that wine, maintain its value and sell it to an established market is a wonderful opportunity.”

Starting a new wine label is a tough gig, but the pair from Babche seem built to go with the flow.

“It’s honestly a bit surreal,” Niki describes, “A friend from Canada wrote me the other day saying, ‘Can you believe you’re finally making your own wine!!’ And I couldn’t believe it because I haven’t had the chance to stop and think about it! This year has been a state of flow, lots of work in the vines, then harvest, then monitoring and caring for ferments, then bottling and sharing… work is constant so you don’t have much time to ponder what’s happening, it just is and I’m very grateful for it all to be happening.”

Babche’s wine (as all good wine) begins in the vineyard. But because there’s no chance for intervention and tweaking later in the winemaking process, extra care is paramount. Grapes are tended organically and the primary focus is to diversify the ecosystem that supports their growth. 

“We don’t aim to meet a certain style of wine,” Niki emphasises, “Rather one that represents the variety, the vintage and vineyard. There are no additives used throughout (our) winemaking, nor oak. We want to express varietals grown on the Bellarine as purely as possible.”

“My influences are my grandparents. (It is because of them) that I witnessed what it is to truly be self-sustaining. They raised animals, maintained a giant produce garden and fruit trees, made their own cheese, wine, moonshine, bread; the essentials. The depth of flavour produced from a single crop, like a tomato, is unforgettable. We’re chasing that quality.”

“Respect for the places where our grapes are grown is what influences Tim,” Niki continues, “It is a responsibility he takes upon himself. As he is the one formally educated, he overlooks the winemaking and beliefs in styles expressed authentically and with minimal intervention in the process.”

Babche’s 2019 Pinot Noir was grown on a slope of dark volcanic clay overlooking Corio Bay. 

The colour is deep and slightly cloudy, like a stormy sky over the ocean at sunset, with its rich purple tones.  It smells of ripe blackberries, tart strawberries, and light, but lingering barbequed meat, a touch of musky undergrowth and the faint scent of eucalypt in the distance.  It’s the smell of late summer evenings, camping in the bush, after the rain.  It’s a very Australian smell.

On the palate it’s velvety, with mouth-watering acidity and almost, but maybe not quite, a hint of chocolate.

Niki and Tim’s favourite thing about Western Victoria is “No doubt the surf.  Whether it’s summer or winter, I adore the rawness of that coastline, you rarely see anyone going for a walk in what seems like a storm most of the time, the shrubs cling low, the white water runs forever… the southwestern coast of Australia is magic.”

They have a cozy camping spot that they believe is Victoria’s best-kept secret, “It won’t be Vic’s best-kept secret if I shared it!”  Laughs Niki.

So, can wine really taste like a place?

Uncover Magazine, 2019