At age 15, I jumped the fence of a vineyard in Gembrook, where I grew up, to ask for work. I did not know when harvest was or how wine was made. I knew nothing about wine or winemaking, but as luck would have it, my timing was perfect and a week later, I was working on my first harvest. I returned to work the harvest at that same vineyard for the rest of my school years. I also spent my summers planting in the Yarra Valley, at vineyards including Yering Station, De Bortoli, Millers, and many more.
After university, enticed by the beautiful beaches, wine and lifestyle of the Mornington Peninsula, I found work managing a vineyard in Balnarring. Then came the shift to winemaking. It was at Kooyong Wines, surrounded by great people, that I discovered my passion for cool climate wines. I was hooked.
I feel privileged to be a part of the wine industry. I worked in Oregon for Ponzi Wines, visited wine regions in Italy, France, Germany, NZ and the US, tasted and drank many world class wines during my pursuit to understand what it is that great wine producers have in common. This might all sound terribly romantic, but the reality of it quite often wasn’t. The following years were spent juggling my enthusiasm for wine with the realities of life. I worked as a butcher, on a deep-sea fishing boat and in many other short-term or seasonal jobs, always calculating the number of hours I would need to serve to afford a single barrel or tonne of fruit. Wine was my motivation through all those years.
Whenever friends in the wine industry warn me against investing more in winemaking, I acknowledge that and from a financial point of view, they might by right. But I don't think anyone who does something they truly love will ever regret investing time or money in the pursuit, whether it is a huge success or not.
