D'Sas Wines

Andrew Santarossa and Matthew Di Sciascio met while studying wine science together, and, sharing Italian family heritage, made a joint red as students before turning the partnership into a label of their own. Santa & D'Sas, established in 2013, now draws fruit from vineyards across King Valley, Yarra Valley, Heathcote, Henty and Geelong, working largely in Italian varietals — prosecco and pinot grigio among them — rather than the cabernet and shiraz that dominate most Victorian lists. The cellar door sits at the Di Sciascio family's Newtown base in Geelong, a working production address rather than a manicured tasting room, with visits by booking. It is one of a handful of small Geelong-region labels doing serious work without inherited vineyard land, built instead on a friendship between two winemaking families and a shared appetite for grape varieties the Australian mainstream still treats as niche. Worth a call ahead for anyone tracking down Geelong's smaller wine producers.