Natty Chatties

Alicia Basa & Mark Warner, Owners/Winemakers of Borachio

About Alicia & Mark

Alicia Basa and Mark Warner are the owners and winemakers of Borachio, a natural winery operation in Carey Gulls, a small town in the Adelaide Hills of Australia. They make fun and adventurous wine from organically-grown grapes, and you won’t see them messing with any preservatives or additives, either. Known for field blends, lots of fizzy stuff, and the occasional varietal wine, the one that quite possibly made the biggest splash in the states is Pash Rash - incredibly refreshing pink bubbles that gulp down quickly and sell out quickly (at least here in the U.S.). Tip: don’t wait until they’re sold out.

 The CHat

Many of your fun labels feature a rag-tag cast of kooky characters, like a mustachioed horse wearing a sport coat and a frilled lizard in sunglasses splayed out on a lounge chair glugging wine through a straw. How do you come up with your brilliant art ideas?

Alicia & Mark: First and foremost the labels are all Australian native flora and fauna. Loosely, the single varietal wines will have a native plant on the label, and the blends are generally a native animal representing some kind of Australian idiom. Usually these are made up whilst drinking or in the shower (don’t drink in the shower) - we have a pretty big backlog of silly ideas. Wine names usually come before the wine and I guess we choose from the big bag of stupid to suit the vibe of the wine.

I personally think Pash Rash is the best wine in the galaxy. I'll never stop telling people that. I know it's hard to choose a #1 among your own children, but I'm going to ask you to. If you could pick a favorite bottle, which would it be and why?

Alicia & Mark: That’s very nice of you to say! Pash Rash is EASILY our go to, especially when the sun is out - we make it 'cause we love it! Next to that, we both are drawn to whites, our 2020 Battered Sav (Chardy/Savagnin) is about as close to our idea of white wine. That said, we have a few new fizzy things from 2021 that we are really vibing. Pretty much fizz and whites are our big vibe.

If you weren't growing grapes and making phenomenal fermented juice, what would you both be doing right now?

Alicia & Mark: No idea really, after having a couple of goes at life, I think we are finally finding some comfort in it and I’d rather not jinx it.

We're all about imagining alternate realities here - if you could only eat one dish that'd ideally pair with every single one of Borachio's wines for the rest of your lives, what would you be eating on repeat?

Alicia & Mark: Jeeze, we love food so much, thats a bit much…likely something from a wok, that way we ain’t tied to [a] tight recipe, more vibe it…fried rice/pad Thai type vibe. Plenty of room to tweak it.

Your tasting notes are always so approachable and vibrant with plenty of relatable descriptors. That said, what's the strangest thing one of your wines have tasted and/or smelled like?

Alicia & Mark: Jalapeño and farts, separately of course.

In your opinion, what's the best genre of music to listen to while drinking wine?

Alicia & Mark: Our love of music is STRONG, Mark spent the better part of his life immersed in every aspect of it so opinions are strong when it comes to the music played in the shed. I’ll just list a bunch of artists that get a run and you can see how confusing it looks. Danzig, Pet Shop Boys, Ted Lucas, Mindsnare, Replacements, Carcass, Haim, Taylor Swift, Jon Wayne, East 17, Sepultura, Bronski Beat, Dolly Parton, Turnstile, Paul Kelly.

Lastly, this has nothing to do with wine but all of us in the states are itching to know - are the spiders over there really that big and nightmarish?

Alicia & Mark: Our spare room is actually called Spider Kingdom, the spiders look after our guests and keep the mosquitos away from them. As long as you are nice, they wont eat you in your sleep.