POUR DECISIONS: Wine & gelato nights at Erin

Gelato and wine have always deserved to be at the same table. So we're putting them there.

Starting next month, Erin is launching Pour Decisions, our new ongoing gelato & wine pairing series done in partnership with our mates at DRNKS, the Sydney bottle shop and online retailer known for hunting down real, organic and interesting drinks from small producers. Each night, a different winemaker joins us at Erin to pour their wines alongside five Messina flavours, matched pair by pair by our gelato chefs.

It's part tasting, part dinner, part excuse to try something new on a Thursday.

We're kicking things off with Stratosphere by Ravensworth, made by the Martins in the Canberra District. Ravensworth started in 2001, as Bryan Martin puts it, "under the pretext of 'it seemed like a good idea at the time.'" Two decades on, it's a proper family operation, with fruit sourced from their own vineyard and a handful of others around the region, including Nebbiolo from a vineyard in Young. Stratosphere is the brainchild of youngest son Lewis Martin.

The wines are made with minimal intervention, chemical- and additive-free, and aged patiently in large oak barrels, ceramic eggs, Italian amphorae and concrete monoliths until they're ready to drink. It's a philosophy the Ravensworth team sums up better than we could: "just leave it alone, things will work out."

That patience and care is exactly the kind of thing we love pairing gelato with, wines with real character, made by people who know their site and their fruit better than anyone.