Wines made with the shooters’ mind in mind 

By Tim Bannister

We are always interested in supporting shooters. Particularly when they support shooters back. And it’s no surprise that often as a community we have similar views on topics like the outdoors, practical conservation, laws and see life in a pragmatic and unsugar coated way. Birds of a feather flock together. 

Outlaw Wines’ Damon de Ruiter fits that bill. In the past he has been a chef, working across kitchens and owning cafes, restaurants and tourist ventures across Australia, before turning his hand to winemaking in South Australia’s Barossa Valley. Chefing is a passionate, competitive and unforgiving lifestyle and at odds, some would argue, with the ability to take a breath, clear the head and get outdoors. Today Damon both for business and lifestyle is less concerned with star ratings and more concerned with producing a genuine wine to be sold to appreciative customers, while taking time to camp on his rural property, hunting deer and goat for meat while culling feral cats and foxes. 

He has taken an unconventional hands-on approach with his wine production and sales. Not only does he produce the wine from local Barossa vineyards including his own 100 plus year-old shiraz vines, but he also hits the road and pitches to hotels and customers in regional Australia, particularly to mum and dad, husband and wife owned pubs, not big commercial hotel group managers. 

“These remote pubs don’t normally see reps,” Damon said. “And when you are talking to the man or woman behind the bar you know they are genuinely appreciative of the attention because they own the country pub, it is their life, it’s not just a job.” 

Damon’s travels have taken him to Queensland’s outback The Brick Hotel at Quilpie, the Betoota Hotel and Cooladdi’s Fox Trap Roadhouse. His trips combine everything he likes; four-wheel driving, camping, hunting and seeing the great Australia outdoors. Taking on the travelling sales role helps save money, not having to pay distribution fees, while providing a lifestyle that helps him destress and get offline. 

It was the fact that The Report magazine is one of the few shooting and hunting magazines to continue to champion print that drew Damon to advertising his wine in the publication and promote it to Queensland’s SSAA members and shooters in other states through our Australian Shooters Alliance. 

“Print advertising lasts,” Damon said. “I’ve seen shooting magazines in waiting rooms that aren’t just from this year they are two, three, four years old. 

“And when you are in the middle of the bush with no internet, sitting around the campfire with your hunting mates, not drinking too much, you want to read the shooting magazines and pass them around.” 

Damon has come aboard The Report magazine and is also offering SSAA Queensland members and readers of this magazine 15 per cent off Outlaw Wines products by using the code SSAA15 at the checkout at outlawwines.com.au 

About the wine 

Outlaw Wines is a paradox. Its wine label features a sheriff’s badge which ironically has ‘Outlaw’ written on it. It’s symbolic of its owner’s dislike for snobbery and the ‘rules’ of the establishment. In fact, ‘There are no rules’ is the slogan of the wine. The wine description on the back is signed off with FGB which I will leave it to your imagination to work out what that stands for. 

With his partner Lana helping market the wine, they are currently offering shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, grenache, red blends and whites like sauvignon blanc and riesling by mail order off their website.  You’ll generally need to buy a minimum of three bottles and the wine prices range generally from $22 to $30 a bottle. Free shipping kicks in from $200. 

I tasted two bottles, the Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 and the Shiraz 2021, both $30 each. That puts them in the serious but not out of reach wine purchase category. These are quality wines made from full flavoured Barossa valley red grapes and matched with a cricket bat of oak, ageing in barrels for more than a year. Both could be cellared for 20 years but are great drinking now. They suit drinking with steak, venison, lamb, duck or to cut through and tame spicy food – but as the label says, there are no rules. Have a few glasses after dinner around the campfire if you like.