NSW/ACT Archives - Young Gun of Wine

Meagan and James Becker

Meagan and James Becker of M&J Becker Wines have carved a distinctive niche in the winemaking world by bridging the vinous landscapes of two continents. Their journey spans regions of New South Wales, Australia, and the renowned wine regions of California, USA. In Australia, their offering includes a dozen wines, ranging from Tumbarumba Pinot Noir and Hunter Valley Chardonnay to Hilltops Nebbiolo. While their commitment to transmitting terroir extends to managing a vineyard in Hunter Valley, where they converted to Certified Organic through ACO late in 2019. All theM&J Becker Wines from Australia are made in a collaborative winemaking facility shared with the other rising stars of the Hunter Valley.

Andrew Ling

Andrew Ling’s foray into the winemaking world was serendipitous – his transition into the field in 2001 as a vintage lab assistant, a favor from his soccer coach, prevented this star player from leaving Mudgee. It didn’t take long for the wine bug to bite, and his career has since spanned roles with leading names across Mudgee, Orange, and the Hunter Valley. In 2017, Ling assumed the role of Senior Winemaker at Carillion Wines, a position he retains to this day. His own venture, Agitate Wines, was launched in 2021 with a Pét-Nat Riesling, and the label has since expanded to include five wines. The Agitate wines embrace a minimal intervention approach: unfiltered and unfined, they are “raw and textured,” in Ling’s words, yet “generally bottled in their youth” to capture their brightness and freshness, resulting in eminently gluggable wines.

Aaron Mercer

Starting in the wine game some 20 years ago on a low rung, cleaning out tanks, Aaron Mercer has since worked broadly in his beloved Hunter valley and around the world. Now in its fourth vintage, Mercer Wines is a blending of two of his greatest passions: wine and the environment. Working from sustainable vineyards across the state, the wines are built with approachable drinkability as a key driver, with varieties both established and adapted – such as chardonnay, semillon and shiraz – and those emerging – including nero d’avola, montepulciano and vermentino – to best fit our changing climate.

Samuel Renzaglia

Samuel Renzaglia developed the di Renzo range under his family’s eponymous wine label. That label is based out of their Bathurst vineyard in the O’Connell Valley, while the di Renzo wines are made from fruit sourced from prime growers across the Central Ranges. With an emphasis on early drinkability, Renzaglia picks earlier, aims for less extraction in reds and turns up the skin contact on whites, while neutral vessels are used for maturation. The wines see no additions bar a little sulphur, and they also have nothing taken away, being bottled un-fined and unfiltered.

Tony Zafirakos & Maddison Park-Neilson

Aristotelis Ke Anthoula is Tony Zafirakos’s homage to genuine garage winemaking, as his parents taught him growing up in Sydney. While not all backyard wine passes muster, theirs was one that was much loved by friends and family, which is all the more remarkable given that they never used sulphur. Today, the production has increased somewhat and the winery operations are shared between Zafirakos and Maddison Park-Neilson. There’s a growing number of amphorae in the winery, and the fruit source is no longer the produce market, but the philosophy of his parents continues to this day, with the aim to make high-quality wines with no additions that are not “too polished”. Sourcing fruit from across New South Wales and the Riverland, the wines range from skinsy, pulpy whites, pét-nats and juicy light reds, along with a take on Retsina and a vermouth flavoured with calendula and citrus.

Chrissie Smith

Chrissie Smith’s Intrepidus Wines was only born in the 2021 vintage, working from a one-acre vineyard in the Canberra District that she farms herself. And that’s critical for her philosophy, with an abrupt career shift leading her to wine and quickly to a vineyard-first approach, recognising that the work done amongst the vines was just as important, if not more so, than the work in the winery. The label is currently built around sangiovese and shiraz, with tiny amounts of external grapes to allow for experimentation. Blends of the two home grapes make up a rosé and light red, while shiraz is also co-fermented with a splash of viognier, marsanne and roussanne.

Alex Beckett

Alex Beckett started in the wine industry fresh from school as a means of putting himself through university. But falling for the industry and its people led him to shift his studies to winemaking, along with a head-first immersion into the wines of the world, with a lengthy stint in fine-wine shops giving him a global perspective. A swift rise to becoming the winemaker at Pokolbin star Briar Ridge in 2018 now seems him overseeing the making of classic, regional wines alongside emerging varieties, with both the traditional and the experimental treated with the same curiosity to make even more pure, subtle, layered and textured expressions.

Peta Kotz

Peta Kotz’s Sabi Wabi is her homage to reworking the traditions of the Hunter, of searching for “beauty amongst imperfection”. Semillon is the foundation of the brand she launched in 2019 while working for biodynamic Hunter winery Krinklewood, and she steadfastly says it will remain that way, although her lo-fi making, with no subtractions and no adds, bar a fraction of sulphur, and employment of a raft of alternative vessels is also applied to other whites, red wine and rosé.

Meagan and James Becker M&J Becker Wines