All things natural wine with P&V’s Mike Bennie

To celebrate Parlour’s new collaboration with P&V Wine + Liquor Merchants we sat down with founder and wine legend, Mike Bennie, to ask him all things natural wine.  

Hey Mike! For anyone new to natural wine – how would you describe what it is?
Natural wine is wine produced from organic/biodynamic farmed or regenerative farmed vineyards with hand-picked grapes, fermented naturally and produced without additives (albeit sometimes with very low levels of sulphur to preserve the wine), bottled without fining and filtration.  

It’s an umbrella term that encapsulates wines that are familiar to the classics right through to boundary pushing, more creative wines that for some can be quite different as a wine drinking experience.  

It’s an exciting kaleidoscope of living wines that delivery diversity, interest and a broad range of styles.  

P&V is such a fun, inclusive and passionate concept. Parlour is stoked to collaborate with you. What was the inspiration behind launching P&V? 
P&V was launched by myself and Louise Dowling with the aim to be a resource for sourcing rare, unusual, distinct, artisan products – wine, beer, spirits, sake, non-alcoholic and other hand-made products. We wanted to be somewhere that people could get access to hard-to-find wines in a retail environment, and to underpin it all with common-speak education about the products and the ethos behind them all.  

You’ve curated an amazing list of natural wines for Parlour – what are some favourites to note?  

It’s great to be able to show off our collaboration projects with kindred wine producers, particularly ones that we have very personal relationships with.  

Our P&V Session range, a staple in our stores since day one, is lovingly made by the winemaking family who taught me first how to make wine, way back when, living with them for three-or-so months over a harvest in their home region of Margaret River. These are really neat and tidy, accessible and super drinkable wines of pure pleasure in a variety of styles. 

Special wines on the Parlour list are also found under the Chateau Sholto label – this is wine produced from one of Australia’s most thoughtful and talented younger gen winemakers from his family farm in Basket Range, Adelaide Hills, where his family were pioneers of grape-growing and wine making. Fine, elegant, beautiful wines.  

Lastly, why natural wine? What is it that you love? 
I love the energy and vitality of great natural wine – purity is a bedrock, drinkability too, and a sense that what I am consuming has nothing added or taken away. I like my wine to be fresh, vibrant and full of personality, and the philosophy of natural wine pairs neatly with my enjoyment of organic grown vegetables, ethically raised and butchered meat and sustainable seafood. 

P&V’s bespoke wine menu will be available at Parlour from Thursday 26th September until Thursday 3rd October.

For more information about P&V’s pop-up in Parlour see here.