WINE REVIEW
What a year for Vagabond! Night Tripper 2023 is one of three wines that won a Gold Medal at the IEWA 2025.
This probably reads as one of the most unusual blends of grapes you could find: Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir – all sounds fairly normal so far, but add in Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Muscat and you really have something quite uncommon. What’s more, this wine was wild-fermented on skins for seven days and matured in old Burgundy barrels for nine months.
The result is a true Orange Wine, perhaps even veering towards rosé character (likely thanks to the Gris and Noir skins). The nose is visceral, textural and involving. The nose is full of grapefruit, orange peel, dried floral and herbaceous tones, with hints of dried straw and lemon verbena.
On the palate, citrus skin bursts contrast with ripe peachy stone fruit richness. As it warms a little, more of that pithy citrus character comes through, as well as rhubarb and black tea flavours and textures. This is a complex wine, but also whistle clean with not a hint of funk that this style of winemaking can sometimes attract.
