How it all started

Planting vines, looking after a vineyard and dealing with drought and the vagaries of nature is not for the faint hearted, although we did not give it a thought when we planted our vineyard in 1996, fresh from overseas travel and a yearning for a settled country life. We came across a small dairy farm on our picnic trips to the Bellarine from Geelong in 1992, with views to the east across Port Phillip Bay, and immediately fell in love with the area. Since purchasing the farm we have been busy planting windbreaks, a vineyard, garden and orchard, breeding cattle and sheep, and raising a family.

Philosophy

Our aim is to make the best wine possible from our site and treat the land with respect for future generations. We are blessed with a cool maritime climate, with prevailing southerly winds which makes the summers relatively mild and the winters bearable. Our dry summers and breezy days tend to keep disease pressure in the vineyard low. Vineyard management involves hand pruning, weed control with our small breed southdown sheep, and organic vineyard sprays using sulphur and copper.

From the start we have grown and made our wine onsite in our winery, which has enabled us to learn which viticultural and winemaking practices that are best suited to our site. We are intimately involved in each step of production in the vineyard through to harvest, and in the winery guiding the fermentation of grapes to make wine that is truly reflective of our terroir.

We have had many to thank for our progress since early days, including those that bought our very first wines years ago, making positive comments on our winemaking abilities that may not have been entirely accurate. Lessons were often learnt the hard way, and the wines you can enjoy today are he result of that continuing process, and most importantly, the opinions of the people who drink our wines.