Brendan Carter

Written by Katie Spain for WBM – Australia’s Wine Business Magazine 

Online retailer Different Drop proclaimed Adelaide Hills winery Unico Zelo one of Australia’s best value independent producers in 2024.  

Unico’s Single Vineyard Nebbiolo, popular orange wine Esoterico (Zibibbo, Gewürztraminer, Moscato Giallo, Greco), Fresh A.F. Nero d'Avola (co-fermented with Zibibbo to lift the aromatics) Sea Foam Vermentino Pet Nat, and Jade and Jasper Fiano all clock in at between RRP $24.99 and $26.99. 

The action happens in a custom-built room above the converted 1920s industrial cold store (turned-tasting space) home to Applewood Distillery (dedicated to small batch spirits made with native ingredients) and the Unico Zelo wine brand, founded by Brendan and Laura Carter in 2012.  

Laura is the chief winemaker, and she and the team make Unico Zelo’s interesting, playful, sustainable wines and champion Mediterranean varieties, most of which are grown in the Riverland, Langhorne Creek and Adelaide Hills. 

With exports to the USA, UK, Hong Kong, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Luxembourg, China, Sweden, Norway, Indonesia, South Korea, New Zealand, Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Canada, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, there are a lot of balls to juggle, including making Wine For The People. 

The YouTube wine show started as a daily live-streamed happy hour when Covid forced the hospitality industry into lockdown. In the early days, it kicked off at 5pm and provided a moment of connection when the pandemic kept people apart. The episodes featured entertainment, interviews and wine education with an accessible, affable twist. 

“Covid forced our hand a bit,” Brendan says. “People were at home and needed a regular trigger to knock off. We opened it up as a conversation and interview medium, specifically with one of the most affected industries – hospitality – and allowed them to tell us the story of how they were feeling at that moment. We did it through the guise of wine, comedy, junk food wine pairings and reviews of shit wine inventions.” 

When they’re not on camera or behind a mic, Noah is Unico Zelo’s Melbourne-based brand director and Henry (local media icon Jane Doyle’s son) is Unico sales rep and mascot. Noah joined the cellar door team seven years ago and worked his way up through the sales and marketing ranks, while Henry worked in a fruit and veg store before joining the Unico and Applewood Distillery team as a glassy. 

Wine For The People kicked off organically, after noticing a dirth of decent digital wine content. “Wine in that space is hard because the wine has been made,” Brendan says. “It’s not like cooking where you’ve got a capsicum and think, ‘I’m going to turn this into a whole other thing’ and follow that journey.” 

The challenge is to tell the stories leading up to that point. “Or tell the stories that wine will generate once it gets consumed,” Brendan says. 

"With wine, you’ve got all these amazing tangents that human beings interact with. We can talk about war, we can talk about politics, we can talk about labour, we can talk about the environment. We can talk about so many different and really important topics through the medium of wine. People under the age of 40 need some practice when it comes to having face-to-face conversations. Wine is such a great way to do that, and a digital medium is a very comfortable way they can access that."

The first 60 Wine For The People episodes featured South Australians and captured heart-warming tales of resilience during a challenging moment in time. Nowadays, guests and viewers span the globe and episodes are presented in a high quality, pre-recorded and edited TV format. Recent guests include Adelaide Hills winemaker Brian Croser, Yarra Valley winemaker Mac Forbes and Penfolds chief winemaker Peter Gago. 

Unico Zelo is committed to sustainable winemaking, growing low-water grapes and using minimal intervention practices.  

“We've expanded with a distillery using native ingredients (Applewood Distillery) and a growers' cooperative (Troppo) to address excess production of conventional grape varieties,” Brendan said.  

“This tracker shows our progress since 2014, beyond just the environment. We track our performance in areas like governance, community and responsible drinking. We're proud to be B Corp certified and are working towards the Freshcare Australian Wine Industry Standard of Sustainable Practice (Winery). 

“We share our journey so you can learn from our mistakes. We're honest about our challenges and sometimes we've even traded one environmental issue for another (e.g., removing plastic, but introducing higher transport carbon emissions). We publicly share our environmental impact once a year and review our sustainability plans with our team.