The thrill of the Chill

Chilled red wine used to be impossible to sell. Now there are adverts and influencer-posed videos all over social media encouraging us to pop our bottles of red in the fridge for a refreshing treat. “Beat the heat with a red!” they say, knowing full well that our forefathers would wedge those same bottles on top of the radiator until they started to boil. It takes a long time for habits like that to retreat. 

There’s a mass-produced, light-bodied Aussie shiraz blend that’s popping up everywhere. You will almost definitely have seen it. Chill Bill has been taking over wine bars and pub wine menus for around 18 months, and with its fun, cartoon branding and its laid-back vibes, you’d think it was part of the Australian natural wine revolution—perhaps made by a small independent producer like Tim Wildman, Delinquente or Jumping Juice. You’d be wrong. It’s actually made by 80-year-old wine company De Bortoli, who have winery locations in six of Australia’s wine regions. They’re huge.

De Bortoli was founded by a family of Italian immigrants from Veneto in 1928, and its third generation are now the owners and managers of the entire estate. Starting in the Riverina region, Vittorio and Giuseppina De Bortoli began their winemaking dynasty which then moved into the Yarra Valley and further afield. The dessert wine Noble One was invented by the De Bortolli family winery in 1982, a botrytis Semillon that became world famous. The winery then became known for their stickies.

Chill Bill is a blend of Tyrian, Shiraz, Durif, Chardonnay, Muscat and Gewurtztraminer. It’s an oddball. The two lesser-known grapes here, the Tyrian and the Durif, are varieties bred in Australia as crosses. Tyrian is a black grape with very deep coloured juice and a bright cherry flavour with a touch of spice. Durif is popular in Australia, and known as Petit Syrah in the US. It’s an acidic wine with bursting flavours of blueberries and a grinding of black pepper—the blueberry is prominent in Chill Bill. For such a wild combination of grape varieties in the blend, you wouldn’t expect to pick up much of any grape’s individual influence, but there it is. Add to that the sweet perfume of Muscat and Gewurtztraminer, the acid of Chardonnay, and the ripe red fruits of Shiraz and you’ve got yourself a juicebomb. 

It sounds great, albeit incredibly unorthodox. It’s historically been difficult to sell unusual wines to the UK market; thousands of “what is orange wine?” articles have been published over the past ten years and yet still, nobody is drinking it. Sparkling red even more so, given Lambrusco’s connection to the ‘80s and bad memories of bad Italian restaurants. Given Chill Bill’s slight effervescence (in a natural wine you’d be tempted to call it a fault) and cool serving temperature, it shouldn’t be a big seller. And yet.

There is a direct correlation between Chill Bill and the wine industry’s collective freakout about young people’s drinking habits. For some time now, Gen Z has been under scrutiny, and blamed for the falling fates of alcohol businesses around the world. Their attitude to drinking tends to lean towards moderation, with a focus on style over substance. This is why they don’t drink a bottle of wine to themselves, but they’ll take a Buzzball to a friend’s barbecue. Optics, darling.