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“As an aircraft maintenance engineering instructor I did a lot of flying around the country. I was working as an instructor at Ansett’s flight training centre. Half my life was spent flying around the country, usually in first class. We were served some excellent wines. When I had the good fortune to be served a Henschke Mount Edelstone Shiraz it reinforced my passion to one day make my own wine.”

Peter had joined TAA (which became Australian Airlines and later merged into Qantas) as an apprentice aircraft maintenance engineer. “After ten years there I was able to take long service leave. I took the opportunity to set up a plant nursery and engage in some landscaping. Growing things was something I always loved. We had a large vegetable garden when we lived in Strathmore, including six vines, so I’ve had 30 years experience of nurturing vines.”

Peter loved flying and used to run classes for people who were afraid to fly. “We had a reasonable success rate but some people just can’t do it. Taking a flight was the graduation ‘ceremony’ for the students of these classes. Some would get to the point of boarding, but then not be able to go through with it.

“One day I was sitting in the jump seat in the cockpit when the flight attendant brought some passengers into the cockpit. This could be done in the days before security was tightened. I recall one nervous lady who was not at all impressed when the pilot turned around to talk to the passengers. ‘Shouldn’t you be looking where you are going?’ she asked him.”

Peter’s wife, Queensland-born Sharon, was a nurse for many years but now sells medical products to rural Victorian hospitals. Both Peter and Sharon have full time jobs off the farm, but are looking forward to spending more time at Eppalock soon. “We don’t see much of each other during the week,” says Sharon. “I am often away mid-week nights and Peter commutes from the farm to Bendigo Regional Institute of TAFE (BRIT) where he delivers Occupational Health and Safety courses.

“We have a regular date for Friday evenings. We sit on the deck of our relocated and renovated old farm house, originally the Wild Duck Farm house, circa 1860. We enjoy the view across the lake, now full, thanks to all that lovely rain. We catch up with each other over a nice bottle of sparkling wine.”

Peter and Sharon bought their property in 2003 and planted the vines which produce the fruit for their sparkling shiraz. They have a very productive vegetable garden and are in the process of finishing their wine cellar.

They have a long-term plan for their winemaking activities. “When we started here,” says Peter, “a very good friend who runs a restaurant in Albert Park encouraged us to buy in some grapes and make some wine as soon as possible, not wait until we had produced our own fruit. His advice was that it’s hard to be really great at everything, so it is important to identify what you enjoy and can do really well, and plan around that. I want to make great wine but as we both approach retirement age we don’t want to create something here that we will have trouble managing by ourselves. We do not plan any more planting. We will continue to source our grapes from Heathcote wine region vineyards where we have forged strong long-term relationships, so that we can continue to concentrate on making great wine.”

“This approach means we can have a work-life balance and enjoy our retirement years. Hopefully, we’ll live long enough for our wines to reach the excellence of that memorable Henschke Mount Edelstone Shiraz. We’ve already had medal success with our first two vintages which is very encouraging.”

Peter did a short course in winemaking through Neighbourhood House in Heathcote. “It was a practical course and I learned a great deal from Geoff Williams of Parwill Swill and Phil Meehan of Meehan Vineyard, who ran the course. It provided a structure for the things I have already learned through working with the winemakers who used to make our wine. I thoroughly enjoy putting into practice all the things I have learned. I am keen to be very hands-on with the winemaking process.”

Peter’s biggest challenge is one that is common to many business owners. “The real challenge is to stay focussed, to stick to the plan,” he says. “We continue to buy in grapes from other Heathcote vineyards. Sharon and I agree about managing our future work activities so that we have a well-balanced life. We enjoy the challenges of winemaking, as well as our other interests. Our two sons are developing an interest in wines and winemaking and it would be great to see their interest continue.”

“Nathan and Ashley are in their early 30’s,” adds Sharon, “and they are both really proud of their Dad and his winemaking ability. They are learning about wine, developing their palates and encouraging their friends to appreciate good wine.

“Now that Lake Eppalock is full again, it is attracting lots of people to the area and we feel real pleasure in sharing our beautiful location with our cellar door visitors. The future of the Heathcote wine region looks very positive. More and more city dwellers are looking to escape the rat race. Our cellar door visitors love the experience of coming up here. They are always interested in the story of the lake, and how the old McNutt farmhouse was moved up the slope when the lake was built. The views across to Mt Alexander are like an Arthur Streeton painting.”

Cellar Door hours:

 Weekends & Public Holidays

11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Vintage time: March – April

Please phone first as we may be out picking.

Mon – Fri by appointment only.

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In early 2002 Kim Chambers purchased the vineyard and set about redeveloping the property’s established vines. Planted in the 1970s, the vines have thrived during the property’s extensive redevelopment. 2002 marked the first release of Shiraz, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon under the vineyard’s own ‘Banksia Grove’ label.

The vines are hand tended and the fruit produced under natural conditions. The unique Terroir of the Heathcote area, and the mild, dry climate come together to produce world class wines. The exclusive use of French Oak further enhances the subtle complexity and long term aging potential of the wines.

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Re-established as a small independent winemaker, his aim is to produce limited volumes of elegant and distinctive wines, working with grapes from vineyards that attain the finest of fruit character.

Baptista is an iconic Shiraz produced from vines planted in 1891 at Graytown, between Nagambie and Heathcote.

Cellar Door hours:

Thu & Fri: 10am – 5pm

Sat & Sun: 12 noon – 5pm

Other times by appointment only.

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In his mid-twenties Craig completed a twelve month Certificate in Wine Service. “We studied winemaking, wine service, wine styles and wine appreciation. I particularly enjoyed writing my final examination. We had a continuously filled wine glass throughout the exam. One of the things we learned on that course was that you should always buy at least a case or two of the wines you like. That way you can progressively sample bottles until you establish that the wine is at its peak.” Now a winemaker, he thinks this is an excellent rule to follow.

Craig was a late starter in drinking alcohol. “Up to around twenty five, I was a very keen diver. But, alcohol and diving don’t mix. I was spear fishing and free diving to depths up to one hundred and twenty feet, as well as scuba diving. My family didn’t drink much at home, although my mother, after a trip to Italy, used to have wine with her evening meals.”

On graduating from the University of WA, Craig and a friend set up an abalone diving business. “We did some pioneering work surveying WA abalone beds. We subsequently dived for abalone, selling our catch to a local cannery. But diving is cold work so I joined IBM, initially as a programmer. I’d done some computing at university so I decided to do a post-graduate course in computer science in parallel with work at IBM.”

Craig saw snow for the first time when he was twenty four, and soon became addicted to it. In 1972 he moved closer to the ski-fields, to Melbourne, and also took up hang gliding. This led to a term as National President of Hang Gliding Australia, and running the Victorian Hang Gliding Association. “My main focus was working on improving safety after a spate of hang gliding fatalities. The Victorian government tried to ban hang gliding but we discovered the states had ceded their rights ( under the Australian Constitution ) over air space to the federal government, so Victoria had no say on that issue!”

Sandra’s working life, after finishing a science degree, involved many roles in IT, from providing technical support to the marketing team, product management, sales, and finally account management. She left IBM to have their son, Stuart, who is now at University. It was on a “really bad day at the office whilst working as an account manager for a large international corporation ” that she decided to do something different with the rest of her life. “I had to decide on what to do. I realised that I didn’t want to work in the rat race any longer. I wanted to grow something. I didn’t even care what I grew but it was important that Craig be part of the journey. We decided to grow shiraz wine grapes. Shiraz was his favourite at the time.

“When we started to look for the right block of land we thought it would take a couple of weekends, but it took two years! I enrolled in a viticulture degree and Craig enrolled in wine technology, both at the University of Melbourne. By 1998 we had purchased our property. In 2002 we had our first crop. Our first Barfold Estate Shiraz, made in our tiny Port Melbourne courtyard, was aged in the lounge room on our pale green carpet. Craig won a gold medal for it. Overnight he was transformed from an IT consultant to a winemaker. By 2003 we had relocated from Port Melbourne to Barfold,” says Sandra.

Looking back at their corporate work experience, both Craig and Sandra are making use of their project management skills, sales, and marketing experience. “Our wine is available at retail outlets and restaurants. We have also developed good networks through direct marketing,” says Sandra. “A good proportion of our cellar door customers are locals. We enjoy the relationships we build with our customers, and welcome visitors to our cellar door.

“Being a winemaker or a viticulturalist is a rewarding job. We love to see the variability between wines and varieties in every vintage. Our philosophy at Barfold Estate is simple. We carefully manage our vineyard to ensure we get the best grapes. This enables us to make really good wines, which we hope all will enjoy with as much pleasure as we have had creating them.”

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“My first job was as an office boy with a Japanese general merchant firm.  I had the good fortune from those early days to have a mentor from whom I learned much.  Most importantly, I learned about attention to detail, caution in decision making, about the need to sleep on things, and then to follow through with a firm decision.”

That advice served Andrew well.  At the relatively young age of twenty three he decided that it was time to set up his own business.  “I was a free spirit.  I made a decision that I did not want to work for other people, so I set myself up as a fabric agent.  I’ve been working for myself ever since.”

By 1993 Andrew’s group of textile and garment companies employed forty five staff with a turnover in excess of fifteen million dollars a year.  “The Button plan had been rolling on for over ten years with tariffs on clothing and footwear decreasing by five percent per annum.  This put a lot of pressure on our industry until eventually the industry reduced itself to a skeleton of its former self,” he says.

“Through these years in business I renovated three houses, two of which included walkdown wine cellars.  My passion for wine was already well developed.  Our wine syndicate ( 12 people ) was the world’s largest private buyer  of the shipper Alexis Lichine.  We were buying French 1st growths (container loads) for an absolute song when the franc was seven to the Australian dollar.

“I later discovered Heathcote wines from winemakers such as Leonard French of Mt Ida, Ron Laughton of Jasper Hill and David Anderson of Wild Duck Creek.  I always liked growing things and I always liked farms and farming.  I weighed up the options and, in 1994, I started looking for a place to make wine.

“Deciding on the location was not difficult.  Toolleen is right in the middle of what is now the Heathcote wine region.  The rich red cambrian clay loam of the Mt Camel range is amazingly good for growing anything.  Being on the western side of the hill, we are fanned by the spring and summer prevailing winds which, together with the cool nights, help with the length of the growing season.  As a consequence we ripen week later than our neighbours on the eastern slope.  We are also above the frost line.

“In 1995 I established the vineyard infrastructure and agricultural systems, graded some roads and planted the first five acres of vines, finishing the planting with another five acres in 1996.  I camped in a tent which blew to tatters in three months and then camped in the winery as I built it.  Barnadown Run became Toolleen’s first winery and now there are over fourteen vineyards within a five kilometre radius of us.

“Heathcote is a young wine region, and we’ve achieved a number of things in a relatively short period of time.  We have formalised the boundaries of the Heathcote wine region in law and we have developed our October Annual Wine and Food festival into one of the most respected events of the wine event calendar.  Heathcote as a tourism destination is still evolving.  When I first came here in 1994 it was a total backwater.  We now have more cellar doors open, more accommodation and more dining experiences to offer visitors.  But we need more tourism infrastructure.  Our region encompasses four local government shires and I see this as being an advantage for promotional funding.”

The Barnadown Run vineyard sits on the side of a hill with panoramic views.  The cellar door is open most days but it is best to ring first.  “Our sales are divided between the cellar door, our mailing list, local wholesalers, and a number of export customers.”

What advice would Andrew give to potential new winemakers? “I would advise them to be very cautious about becoming owner winemakers.  It’s a tough life if you are trying to acquire assets and raise kids.  It is very hard work.  I’d also tell them that the best thing about this business is the freedom it gives you, the luxury to choose for yourself what you’ll do each day, to spend much of your time in the open where you can view the sky and the clouds and the scenery and keep a perpetual suntan from the neck up and the elbows down.  Mostly, every now and then, you’ll crack it for a wine that is special.  It gets some recognition and that makes it all worthwhile.”

Andrew’s wines have won many awards since his first vintage in 1998.  “The most special have been four gold medals,” he says.  We won two gold ‘Wine for Asia’awards in Singapore in 2002 and 2005, one Robert Parker Gold in 2004, and one Halliday Gold in 2005.  The 2005 season was particularly good.  When I first bottled the wine it was so austere that I was dreading releasing it.  But after one year in the bottle it became bliss on a stick.  That’s when you know that the work is all worthwhile.”

Andrew is not concerned about the current wine over-supply.  “There were eight hundred wineries in Australia when I started,” he says.  “Now there are two thousand six hundred.  Just twenty of those wineries make ninety percent of the country’s wine.  I think that premium wines have a great future.  Right now we are seeing a slowdown in wine exports because of the Australian dollar value.  The prime ingredient for quality wine lies within the vineyard that it’s produced from.  It is difficult to make bad wine if the vineyard is in balance.  Small winemakers in premium wine regions are very resilient and will hang in there until the supply and demand level out.”

Andrew’s flagship wine is his ‘Henry Bennett’s Voluptuary.’ Henry Bennett was an Irishman from Barnadown in County Cork.  He was a prison warden before becoming a pastoralist in the Monaro district of NSW.  When foot-and-mouth disease struck in the Monaro region he took his sheep south and established the Barnadown Run pastoral lease.

That original pastoral lease encompasses the winery and property of Barnadown Run which is about fifteen minutes north of Heathcote township.  Follow the Northern Highway to Toolleen, turn right, and you’ll find Barnadown Run about four kilometres on your right.  Don’t miss checking out the view from Chinaman’s Bend on the eastern side of Mt Camel.

Cellar Door hours:

Our cellar door is usually open, but it is better to make an appointment first should you wish to enjoy a tasting of a particular red wine for sale.

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“Dad came to Australia from Punjab, India in 1958.  He attended high school in Ballarat and went on to become a civil engineer.  His engineering background, combined with his Punjabi heritage, means that he is very intense, highly disciplined, diligent, and focused on quality in all he does.

“When my parents inherited the Bindi land, it brought together the right mix of people and land.  The grape varieties we grow are right for this land.  Dad checked the suitability of the vineyard site selection carefully with Murray Clayton, then Victoria’s viticulturalist, who declared it to be a most suitable site.  This reversed an earlier expert opinion some ten years earlier that it was not suitable.  Our early white wines were made by John Ellis of Hanging Rock Winery.  Stuart Anderson made our early reds and has continued to be involved as our wine consultant, mentor and friend.

“Dad sought out such people with knowledge and experience in viticulture.  Our soil is a critical ingredient in our success.  We have about forty acres of Ordovician soil on the side of Mount Gisborne, the rest of our soil is volcanic.  Some of it is five million years old, some 450 million years.  I did not realise the impact the soil profile would have on the characteristics of our wine.  The voice of the soil is strong.”

The successes that Michael and his father Bill have had with Bindi wines in local and overseas markets has given the Gisborne sub-region of the Macedon Ranges wine region the same type of boost that Ron and Elva Laughton’s Jasper Hill gave to the Heathcote region in the 1980s.  Michael had just graduated from Monash University with an economics degree when he met Ron Laughton in 1990.  “Ron was already known for practicing biodynamic principles, and we follow a similarly thoughtful philosophy here,” says Michael.  “We try to do things to promote life and balance in the vineyard.  We don’t operate in fear of nature.  We do not use herbicides or pesticides.  We seek to work in harmony with the vineyard, not destroy elements of it.”

The difficulties experienced by Bindi during the 2011 season are summarised in its May 2011 newsletter, available on its website.  ‘Our focus has been to promote life forces rather than to apply death to control our vineyard environment.  This year we held firm to this regime with the exception of two systemic fungicide applications, the first in eight years, to the foliage in December.  There was a temptation to use anti-botrytis fungal sprays on the ripening fruit but we had done so much work to have an open, clean, airy canopy we felt more comfortable to take the risk than spray.  Also, we dropped thirty percent of the overall crop on the ground before veraison / ripening as we didn’t want fruit on small shoots or in clumps where fruit ripening rates would be compromised and disease would be more likely to develop with bunches touching one another.  A larger crop would have required another week to ten days of ripening and this was clearly not the season to risk exposing the fruit to extra adverse weather events.’

“We are vigilant in the vineyard,” Michael says.  “We regularly inspect every vine.  In 2011 we inspected every bunch of grapes.  Our soil provides good root penetration, and I manage the canopy to maximise conditions.  We net individual rows so that we have good access to the vines through the ripening period.”

Michael sees Bindi’s wine production as “just another farming activity.” He is neither a scientist nor an artist.  He is a farmer who adds value to his grape crop by turning it into fine wine.  “We are just like farmers of other crops.  We try and encourage our land to produce the best possible crop.  We don’t seek certification, we just do what we think works best for us.”

Michael’s wine knowledge has been acquired through working one-on-one with mentors such as his father and Stuart Anderson.  “Dad was planting the vineyard when I was studying economics.  I assisted him in planting the vines.  I did some work experience in an accounting firm and that made me realise that the wine industry held more appeal.  I’ve had the good fortune to have mentors who have generously shared their knowledge, experience and intellect with me.  I’ve also done vintages in California, Tuscany, Rhone and Champagne with people there who have expanded my knowledge and improved my approach to winemaking.

Through Stuart Anderson, Michael got a day job with Paul de Burgh, a wine importer. “Working in the wine industry proved to be valuable. It increased my knowledge of wine distribution and marketing. It enabled me to develop good relationships with people, both in Australia and overseas, in that important part of the value chain.

“We waited for five years before taking our wines to the market.  This enabled us to demonstrate our consistency and sell back releases.  We wanted buyers to see that we are in the business of producing fine wine on a regular basis.”

This approach has succeeded.  Bindi wines sell out quickly.  One third goes to mailing list customers, one third to fine wine distributors, including high end restaurants, and one third to export markets.  “We have no desire to expand,” says Michael.  “We can manage what we now have in a way that allows us to achieve our quality objectives.  If we expanded, it would change our cost structure and we’d lose the personal control we now have.”

Michael describes his career highlight in a 2007 article by Cindie Smith in Wine Business Magazine as “The first time my father and I drank a bottle of our own wine, it was a very quiet moment, standing there in the kitchen of my father’s house.”

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With the region just coming out of a 10 year drought, Simon Osicka (winemaker) and his partner Alison Philips (an experienced viticulturist) wanted to explore options other than the family’s dry grown vineyard (ie Paul Osicka vineyard). Simon and Alison spent a lot of time visiting different vineyards, tasting fruit and wine before deciding to source the fruit from Colbinabbin Estate Vineyard on the Mount Camel range. The patch they source their fruit from is half way up the hill on the southern side of the vineyard in buckshot gravel.

For Simon, attention to detail can never be too great. Their yields are low and the quality of the fruit high. The fruit is hand pruned, shoot thinned, leaf plucked, crop thinned as required and then hand-picked. The fruit is fermented in small one tonne batches in open top fermenters with a small percentage of whole bunches. This gives Simon ultimate control of the ferments. It spends about 20 days on skins, prior to pressing into French oak, 25% new barriques and hogsheads. The wine is racked twice out of oak and bottled after 12 months. Simon’s aim is to make a complex, expressive style of Heathcote shiraz that has richness of texture without being overbearing.

Simon started winemaking in the 1990’s, and commenced building his knowledge and experience straight away. He returned to the family business in 2010 after holding senior winemaking positions at Houghton, Leasingham and as group red wine maker for Constellation Wines Australia (one of the biggest producers in the country). This was interleaved with vintages in Italy, Canada, Germany, and France. This included harvest at Northern Rhone’s revered shiraz producer Domaine J.L Chave which was established in 1841. Simon is now one of the most respected winemakers of the region, not because of his pedigree, but because the consistent quality and value of the wines he produces under the Paul Osicka brand.

The name Bull Lane comes from the nearest sign post just on a kilometre away from where Simon’s grandfather planted his first vineyard back in the 1950’s in Graytown. Back in the gold rush days there was a population of 30,000, these days it would barely be 100.

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