2021 Latta Vino ‘Quartz Bianco’ Sauvignon Blanc Pyrenees

Home > Wines We Love > 2021 Latta Vino ‘Quartz Bianco’ Sauvignon Blanc

A textural, mineral-driven version of sauvignon blanc that shows how good this variety can get with a little bottle age.

Producer
Latta Vino
Region

Pyrenees
RRP

$43
Vintage

2021
Variety/Varieties

Sauvignon blanc
Alc./Vol.

12%

Sauvignon blanc is the most popular wine variety in Australian retail, accounting for roughly one in every seven bottles of wine sold here. Despite this fact, it’s a variety that many wine drinkers disdain and misunderstand. Fortunately, Latta Vino’s ‘Quartz Bianco’ – made by Young Gun of Wine Award winner Owen Latta – offers a masterclass in the virtues of the variety, offering a textural and mineral-driven rendition that’s miles away from the exuberant tropical fruit clichés of Marlborough.

Tasting note

This wine offers a compelling and heady bouquet of ripe guava, fresh feijoa, pineapple rind, lemongrass, lemon balm, creamy vanilla and sugar snap pea tendril, with a tiny touch of durian funk and a pleasantly earthy/mineral hint of motor oil providing a bass note. The palate is bright with acidity, and shows a slightly creamy texture thanks to ten months of lees ageing. No barrels were harmed in the making of this wine, though, so while those lees add texture and a savoury complexity, this is a wine that doesn’t tip over into full fumé blanc territory – its stainless-steel élevage maintains a firm spine of freshness that helps drive the wine down the palate. The finish is long and vibrant, with a crystalline mineral note that helps hold the fruit characters in focus long after each sip. This is a wine that demonstrates the virtues of cellaring high-quality sauvignon blanc, showing layers of complexity and depth that only time in bottle can generate.

Themes of this wine

Sauvignon blanc

When you think of sauvignon blanc, it’s hard not to think of New Zealand almost immediately, and the pungently expressive examples from Marlborough. But sauvignon also contributes to some of France’s most noble wines – principally in the Loire Valley and Bordeaux – as well as a huge diversity of expressions in Australia, both bottled solo and in blends.

Lees ageing

Lees are simply the solid bits in a wine, which are often, but not always, removed from a wine prior to bottling. They’re mainly dead yeast cells that have done their job turning sugar to alcohol during fermentation, but lees can be really any particulate matter in a wine, including fragments of grape skins and the like. The lees can play a big role in a wine, too, with wine kept on its lees (or sur lie, as the French say) developing more texture and sometimes creamy and cheesy aromatic notes (sometimes nice, sometimes not).

Pyrenees

The wine zone of Western Victoria contains the three major regions of the Grampians, the Pyrenees and Henty. Being the furthest inland to the north-east, the Pyrenees is more continental in climate with warm days and cold nights. The Pyrenees were planted to vines in the 19th century, with the last vines disappearing in the 1940s, before replanting in the 1960s. Interestingly, sparkling wine was an early focus in the Pyrenees, though the warm summer days make ripening later picked red varieties, such as cabernet sauvignon, a reliable proposition. The fact that both things are possible is testament to the heterogenous nature of the region. The modern founders are still the region’s most acclaimed names, such as Blue Pyrenees, Taltarni, Mount Avoca and Dalwhinnie.

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Leigh Ritchie’s Young Tree Wines project looks laid-back, but don’t let that fool you. While his label is named after a reggae album – Groundation’s 1999 debut, Young Tree – and he releases a wine named Natty Dred, Ritchie’s thinking about winemaking owes more to the upper echelons of California’s Napa Valley than it does to Rastafarianism. With a short and sweet array of wines in the lineup – a cabernet sauvignon, a marsanne/roussanne blend, and the aforementioned Natty Dred, a chillable red based most recently on merlot – Young Tree offers wines that hide serious quality behind their Rasta veneer.

Producer
Region

Nagambie Lakes Pyrenees Victoria
RRP

$
Vintage
Variety/Varieties
Alc./Vol.

%

Leigh Ritchie’s Young Tree Wines project looks laid-back, but don’t let that fool you. While his label is named after a reggae album – Groundation’s 1999 debut, Young Tree – and he releases a wine named Natty Dred, Ritchie’s thinking about winemaking owes more to the upper echelons of California’s Napa Valley than it does to Rastafarianism. With a short and sweet array of wines in the lineup – a cabernet sauvignon, a marsanne/roussanne blend, and the aforementioned Natty Dred, a chillable red based most recently on merlot – Young Tree offers wines that hide serious quality behind their Rasta veneer.

Leigh Ritchie’s wine career began as another career ended. While chasing his ambition to become a safari guide in East Africa, Ritchie found himself in Tanzania, almost out of funds, and at a loose end. When he was offered a gig working a vintage in Israel’s Golan Heights, he leapt at the opportunity, and soon found himself working in, as he puts it, “an industry where I could balance science, creativity, passion and hard work, making a product others could enjoy.” He was pretty quickly hooked, and swiftly headed to Adelaide to complete his masters in oenology. Vintages around the world followed, including lengthy stints in California’s Napa Valley and Sonoma, where he worked for some of America’s most heralded names, including Williams Selyem, Ovid, Dalla Valle, and Screaming Eagle. Returning to Australia for the 2019 harvest, he quickly racked up winemaking experience at Australian icons Brokenwood, Best’s Great Western, Stanton & Killeen, and Mitchelton, before striking off to form Young Tree with business partner (and Mitchelton alum) Steve Bamford.

Ritchie credits his years in California with the biggest influence on Young Tree Wines’ style. “Exposure to high-quality, small-batch production and inspired thinking taught the importance of the one percent,” he says of his time there. “The guidance of the likes of Andy Erickson, Nick Gislason and Austin Peterson, honed my skills and winemaking approach. Blending with Michel Roulon exposed me to the approach and influence of respected industry leaders. I learned the importance of maintaining an inquisitive outlook and adopting the approach that you have never made your best wine.”

It was also during his time in California that Ritchie came up with the concept for Young Tree Wines, and sought the blessing of Groundation’s lead singer Harrison Stafford to name the label after the band’s debut. “I have always wanted to express the knowledge gained in my working career by producing my own wines,” Ritchie says. “In 2022 the opportunity to begin making presented itself. The pivotal point for the business came in 2024 when I partnered with Steve Bamford, which provided the focus and stability for the project to evolve from a hobby into a business.” And the meaning of the label name for Ritchie? “Messages of creative expression and growth over time resonate,” he says. “Many threads interweave which both tie the foundation of this label to the beginning of my journey, and also help to ground my approach to an ethos that stretches beyond winemaking itself.”

“Find good grapes and produce wines that suit the fruit. Never the other way around.”

Ritchie’s winemaking philosophy is relatively simple. “I produce wines with tension and elegance,” he says. “By maintaining a focus on high quality fruit and small-batch ferments, I craft wines that are true to the vineyards from which the fruit is sourced and the season in which the wine is made.” It all starts with the fruit itself. “A lot of thought has gone into the wine styles that I produce and the growers and regions that I source from,” Ritchie adds. “Ultimately, great wine requires great fruit – and, on this point, I don’t compromise. Find good grapes and produce wines that suit the fruit. Never the other way around.”

Once he has his hands on the best fruit he can source, Ritchie tries to do the least possible to it. “My approach is to be as hands off as possible,” he says. “With that said, high quality is the ultimate goal. If additions are required – sulphur and tartaric acid – I will use them, only as needed and with consideration.” He’s not at all doctrinaire about his approach, adapting as he sees fit to best express the quality of the fruit he sources. “There is no right or wrong approach to winemaking,” he adds. “There are approaches that will make better or worse wines, but if you are considerate toward the fruit, the season and the final wine you are trying to achieve, good wine will result. In my experience many rules can be bent or broken, but you need to understand them to do so.”

It’s early days yet for Young Tree Wines, with only two vintages (2022 and 2023) having seen release thus far. Ritchie is confident about the label’s potential, though. “The first phase of the label is to identify the optimal regions and growers for each variety,” he says. “From there, fine tune the winemaking to best express the fruit, this will govern the wines produced. The style is expected to evolve over time, always striving to improve.” His motivation is clear. “A desire to produce high quality, style-focused wines that reflect an unwavering commitment to authenticity, passion and hard work is what drives me,” he says. “Young Tree Wines gives me the freedom to choose my own path by expressing myself through nature, art and science. Hence the motto, ‘Freedom found through expression of craft’.” Now Ritchie just has to keep working and remain patient. Or, as he puts it, “The seed has been planted, and now sets its roots as it begins to grow into the Young Tree.”

Home > Top Winemakers

It’s a long way from the high-rises of Wall Street to an urban winery in the inner suburbs of Melbourne, especially if you take a detour via Provence. This is the journey that financier-turned-winemaker Jarrod Kiven has undertaken, launching his eponymous label in 2022 with a just two wines – a Pyrenees syrah and Beechworth viognier. Since then he’s kept the label small-scale, resisting the temptation to expand the range in favour of keeping production strictly hands-on. Kiven produces a compact collection of wines – just two wines per annual release thus far – from cool-climate vineyards, using traditional methods to craft wines of serious intent.

Producer
Region

Heathcote Macedon Ranges Pyrenees Sunbury Victoria
RRP

$
Vintage
Variety/Varieties
Alc./Vol.

%

It’s a long way from the high-rises of Wall Street to an urban winery in the inner suburbs of Melbourne, especially if you take a detour via Provence. This is the journey that financier-turned-winemaker Jarrod Kiven has undertaken, launching his eponymous label in 2022 with a just two wines – a Pyrenees syrah and Beechworth viognier. Since then he’s kept the label small-scale, resisting the temptation to expand the range in favour of keeping production strictly hands-on. Kiven produces a compact collection of wines – just two wines per annual release thus far – from cool-climate vineyards, using traditional methods to craft wines of serious intent.

Kiven’s path to winemaking began when he signed up for viticulture electives as an undergraduate finance student at Melbourne University. Finance work took him from his home town to Sydney, and from Sydney to New York City to work as a financier on Wall Street – but the call of working in wine soon saw him throw in the Gordon Gekko lifestyle and move to the village of Lauris, Provence, to work with Xavier Balespouey of Domaine de Fontenille.

“I always struggled with the concept of sitting behind a desk 50 to 60 hours a week for the rest of my life,” Kiven says. “Making wine and working in vineyards gives me a strong sense of purpose, a deep yearning to learn, and a platform to travel and live in the most beautiful places around the world.”

Unlike many in the world of wine, Kiven doesn’t come from a winemaking family, or even a wine-drinking one. “Wine, or any alcohol for that matter, was never really present at our dinner table growing up,” he says. Instead, he credits the viticulture electives he took at university for igniting his interest in wine. “Viticulture drew me to wine, rather than the other way around,” he adds. “Something about working in vineyards felt so innate and instinctive, and is something that I hope plays a big part in the future of my label.”

Learning from Balespouey has given Kiven a fairly traditionalist mindset when it comes to how he approaches his work in the cellar. “My wines tend to be more serious and made with a level of resolve.” he says. “And while there is a trend to be hyper-experimental in the younger generation of winemakers … what drew me to wine in the beginning was the tradition, and the tradition of making a wine to be drunk years into the future – which, once opened, is able to communicate the story, the site, the year, the challenges, all from that very vintage. This is what made me fall in love with the craft.”

“I was never in awe of shiny new stainless-steel machines, high tech optical graders, or inert pneumatic presses. As clichéd as it sounds, the appeal to me was the 75-year-old Frenchman who had been making wine with his bare hands the way his father taught him, and his father before him.”

Unorthodox wine experiments may be out, but that doesn’t mean that Kiven is opposed to a bit of science in winemaking. “I’d like to say my process is driven by instinct and gut-feel,” he says, “[but] having spent countless hours buried in financial models and spreadsheets I am very data-focused, and the pragmatic side of me needs to always have the supporting science before making key decisions.”

Not that the rational side of Kiven’s approach sees him investing in winery technology, or pitching in additives to achieve his desired results. “I was never in awe of shiny new stainless-steel machines, high tech optical graders, or inert pneumatic presses,” he says. “As clichéd as it sounds, the appeal to me was the 75-year-old Frenchman who had been making wine with his bare hands the way his father taught him, and his father before him. While I’m not pursuing anything particularly unique, what I am pursuing is wine that contains that fourth dimension – which I believe only exists in wines made in smaller quantities, very hands-on, and with serious intention.”

Kiven takes ‘hands-on’ as a concept very seriously. “Everything in my winemaking process is done by hand,” he says, “which, for better or for worse, adds an artisanal dimension.” Without a family background in wine, his operation is necessarily small and lean. “Being a lone wolf in this game can be difficult at times,” he says. “The label is me – I have nothing to hide behind, and need to be accountable for every single decision … Producing something with your bare hands that takes you over two years to finish and then seeing someone thoroughly enjoy it is one of the warmest feelings you can have. Every year I want to become better, I want my wines to become more distinguished, I want to grow.”

“The label is me – I have nothing to hide behind, and need to be accountable for every single decision.”

This ‘hard-mode’ approach to winemaking starts at harvest, when Kiven takes on fruit from the organic and/or sustainable vineyards he purchases from. “I am out there with the picking crew, at first light, handpicking every bunch that enters my winery,” Kiven says. “Every single bunch is manually fed through the destemmer and sorted on its way through. My ferments are attended to four times per day, every day.” He proudly disdains the idea of ‘minimal intervention’ in the cellar. “I’d say my winemaking philosophy is entirely opposite,” he says. “I’m always feeling, smelling, analysing every single day through harvest and the ageing process.” Despite this work in the cellar, the finished wines would sit comfortably under all but the most doctrinaire definition of natural wine. “My wines are not filtered, nor fined, and no additions are made except for sulphur,” he adds. “A very small amount at the crush, after malolactic in the spring, and just prior to bottling.”

The big challenge for Kiven is getting perfectly ripe fruit from his cool-climate vineyard sources, with the extended hang time increasing weather risks. “It has been difficult at times to hold my nerve,” he admits. “The weather during harvest in the last few years has been exceptionally volatile, leading to a constant mind-battle of waiting for phenolic ripeness while observing the vine canopy degrade. This has led to me picking earlier than I would have liked and as such, doing a little bit more work in the cellar. Fortunately, after spending some time making wine in Slovenia (where this issue is common-place) you learn some techniques – particularly around the use of lees.” He finds the extra work worthwhile: “The savoury characters in wine, the intense aromatic profile, and the complexity you see from extended hang-time are just a few reasons why I love working in the areas I do.”

Given that viticulture was Kiven’s springboard into winemaking, it’s perhaps unsurprising that his long-term ambitions include vineyard ownership. “The dream has always been, and will always be to have a vineyard of my own, growing varieties that I love that perhaps are lesser-known,” he says. In the interim, he’ll keep making wine the same way he has for the past few years – micro-scale, hands-on, an indefatigable one-man band who doesn’t mind putting in the hard yards. “While I never want to consistently produce the same wines,” he says, “I hope I can consistently find that fourth dimension.”

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Husband-and-wife duo Andy and Clare Ainsworth are hardly the only couple to have fled city life in the midst of the COVID pandemic – but few have made the transition so successfully. The Ainsworths moved from Sydney to Daylesford, central Victoria, in 2020, and by the end of 2021 they’d not only opened Daylesford restaurant Bar Merenda (winner of the 2022 Young Gun of Wine Wineslinger Best New Haunt award), they also had their first two wines under the A & C Ainsworth label resting and awaiting release. By leveraging Andy’s background as an experienced hospitalitarian and wine salesperson – he formerly managed the wine-centric Sydney venue 10 William Street – and Clare’s background as a designer and visual artist – you might recognise her work from the redesigned Eastern Peake wine labels – the A & C Ainsworth wines have travelled well beyond the list at Bar Merenda and can be found at a bevy of the country’s best eateries. With a trio of wines under the label – a grenache, a syrah, and a rosé made from cabernet sauvignon – and production levels firmly small-scale, the wines aren’t easy to find, but reward those who make the effort.

Producer
Region

Pyrenees Victoria
RRP

$
Vintage
Variety/Varieties
Alc./Vol.

%

Husband-and-wife duo Andy and Clare Ainsworth are hardly the only couple to have fled city life in the midst of the COVID pandemic – but few have made the transition so successfully. The Ainsworths moved from Sydney to Daylesford, central Victoria, in 2020, and by the end of 2021 they’d not only opened Daylesford restaurant Bar Merenda (winner of the 2022 Young Gun of Wine Wineslinger Best New Haunt award), they also had their first two wines under the A & C Ainsworth label resting and awaiting release. By leveraging Andy’s background as an experienced hospitalitarian and wine salesperson – he formerly managed the wine-centric Sydney venue 10 William Street – and Clare’s background as a designer and visual artist – you might recognise her work from the redesigned Eastern Peake wine labels – the A & C Ainsworth wines have travelled well beyond the list at Bar Merenda and can be found at a bevy of the country’s best eateries. With a trio of wines under the label – a grenache, a syrah, and a rosé made from cabernet sauvignon – and production levels firmly small-scale, the wines aren’t easy to find, but reward those who make the effort.

Like many others, Andy and Clare Ainsworth had their life uprooted when the COVID pandemic arrived in Australia in early 2020. They were fortunate enough to have had a small head-start, though, as they had been contemplating a move to regional Victoria for some time prior to be, in Andy’s words, “closer to the source of the wines and food that we love.” The pandemic hastened their exit from Sydney, and the pair landed in Daylesford without any firm plans about what they’d like to do. Enter the Cooper clan: “I started working vintage at Cobaw Ridge with Alan and Nelly Cooper and their son Joshua Cooper in 2021,” Andy says, “and this is what enabled us the opportunity to make a small amount of our own wines.” A surplus of fruit from the Chapoutier Landsborough vineyard helped, too. “I’d fallen in love with Grenache over the years, and when Corey Hope from the Chapoutier vineyard in the Pyrenees mentioned that there might be a little extra I just had to say yes, despite the significant cost,” Andy says. “A few weeks later I had managed to buy a used puncheon and our first vintage, 2021, was underway.”

The Ainsworths could get their start as wine producers – “without the usual financial barriers,” as Andy puts it – thanks to the support of the Coopers, who offer an exchange system for emerging winemakers, swapping winery labour for access to Cobaw Ridge’s equipment and the Coopers’ expertise. “It’s a great crew out at Cobaw Ridge each vintage,” Andy enthuses. “This kind of exchange where first time winemakers can use some of the equipment in an established winery in exchange for labour is so special, and we are so grateful for this.” Andy points to Jeremy Shiell (Saeke Wines) and Mahmood Fazal as other emerging winemakers nurtured by this arrangement with the Coopers – all of whom are part of “such a wonderful community of grape growers, winemakers, and hospitality pros” who have made the Ainsworths feel at home in their Daylesford digs.

The Ainsworths currently source their fruit from what Andy calls “the formidable Chapoutier vineyard in the Victorian Pyrenees.” “It’s a site with something to say for sure,” he adds. “Complex soils and steep rolling hills create the chance for a lot of character in the resulting wines. It’s certified organic, which is important to us.” The Pyrenees region itself was something of a draw to Victoria for the Ainsworths, who had fallen in love with the wines of central Victoria through Andy’s work in Sydney’s hospitality scene. “The Victorian Pyrenees has a wonderful climate for ripening Rhône varieties, with long warm days and plenty of sun,” Andy adds. “There’s a great mix of quartz and shale through the mudstone soils that give the wines lift and freshness.”

“Dogma in any sense with winemaking is a bad idea, and we are always learning to work with the fruit that the season gives rather than a preconceived idea.”

Once the fruit is in the winery, the Ainsworths operate by informed intuition and feel. “Dogma in any sense with winemaking is a bad idea, and we are always learning to work with the fruit that the season gives rather than a preconceived idea,” Andy says. “We’ve found great success with 100% whole cluster fermentation for the grenache we make. I really love the spice and texture that it brings. We are learning, however, that syrah can be so different year-on-year, and that 100% whole cluster isn’t always the way.” The rosé may be made from the Bordelaise variety cabernet sauvignon, but it draws its inspiration from a cult winery further south in France, Provence’s Clos Cibonnne. “With our rosé, I’m really into oxygen, allowing the barrels to remain untopped for extended periods, and the longest elevage of all our wines,” Andy says. “I love what this brings rosé – it’s inspired by wines like Clos Cibonne, where the ripe fruit characters are played off against savoury, herbaceous, spicy flavours from time in old barrels.”

“We simply try to make wines in the style of the many wines from around the world that we have come love over the years,” Andy says of their winemaking philosophy. “I think the key to great wines is a starting point of high-quality, organically grown fruit from an interesting site, picking grapes with full phenolic ripeness, and a patient, gentle approach in the cellar.” Their one consistent rule? “We only work with certified organic fruit. As négoce winemakers, this gives us a level of confidence that soil health and fruit quality is top of mind for our growers.”

As such a new project, and from a pair of self-taught winemakers who have their own wine bar and restaurant to run, the Ainsworths are in no hurry to expand. “We are taking it a vintage at a time at the moment,” Andy says. They’re still getting a feel for what different vintages in the Pyrenees entail: “We’ve been somewhat lucky so far in that three out of the four vintages we’ve made have been in cooler, wetter seasons, not so indicative of the general climate warming,” Andy says. “In 2024 it was a bit warmer, and we were looking at the fruit closely to ensure optimal ripeness without overdoing it.” It’s an ongoing learning process. “I think the biggest challenge, though, is water,” Andy adds. “The vintages we have completed so far have all been during the wetter years. 2025 is quite the opposite.”

Whatever any given vintage brings, it’s clear that the Ainsworths have found their tribe in Daylesford and its surrounds, and will use the opportunities they’ve been presented with here to blossom. “Wine is such a subjective topic – there’s very little that’s right or wrong, so at some point after working for many years for others in various capacities, you need to start your own thing,” Andy says. “That’s how Bar Merenda came about, and A & C Ainsworth: small businesses where we do things our way, which isn’t necessarily better than others – it’s just pursuing what we love.”

Home > Top Winemakers

Callie Jemmeson is a Melbourne-based winemaker whose Pachamama label makes wines across ten varieties sourced from Victoria’s most compelling cool-climate regions – Yarra Valley, Heathcote, King Valley and beyond – under two labels with distinct personalities. Pachamama covers the more considered end of the range, with pinot noir, shiraz, chardonnay and Italian varieties; sibling label Cloak and Dagger sits at the effortlessly drinkable, everyday end. In 2024, both brands were acquired by Joval Family Wines, bringing expanded resources and estate vineyard access while leaving creative direction firmly with Jemmeson. The philosophy across both labels has never wavered: delicious, honest wines without ego or pretence, made with curiosity and a deliberate refusal to be bound by rules.

Producer
Region

Pyrenees Victoria Yarra Valley
RRP

$
Vintage
Variety/Varieties
Alc./Vol.

%

Callie Jemmeson is a Melbourne-based winemaker whose Pachamama label makes wines across ten varieties sourced from Victoria’s most compelling cool-climate regions – Yarra Valley, Heathcote, King Valley and beyond – under two labels with distinct personalities. Pachamama covers the more considered end of the range, with pinot noir, shiraz, chardonnay and Italian varieties; sibling label Cloak and Dagger sits at the effortlessly drinkable, everyday end. In 2024, both brands were acquired by Joval Family Wines, bringing expanded resources and estate vineyard access while leaving creative direction firmly with Jemmeson. The philosophy across both labels has never wavered: delicious, honest wines without ego or pretence, made with curiosity and a deliberate refusal to be bound by rules.

Pachamama Wines was started by Callie Jemmeson’s father over a decade ago, but she has taken what was a retirement project and turned it into a brand that works across ten varieties sourced from growers across Victoria. Her mission is to make wines that are “delicious and honest without the ego and pretence.” In 2024, Pachamama and its sibling label Cloak and Dagger were acquired by Joval Family Wines – a major milestone that has brought expanded resources, a winery home in Healesville and access to estate vineyards in the Yarra Valley, while leaving creative and technical direction firmly in Jemmeson’s hands. She continues to lead both the brand and the winemaking, working part-time to accommodate young children – a flexibility she has fought hard to create, for herself and for others.

“We have worked hard to cultivate quality, long standing relationships with growers who love and care for their land and know it intimately. We are passionate about working with like-minded people that share our values and desire to create something special to share with the world.

Jemmeson’s path to wine was characteristically circuitous. After a Bachelor of Arts in criminology and psychology at the University of Melbourne, she trained as a chef at William Angliss Institute before realising the kitchen wasn’t quite right. “My dad had a catchphrase: ‘Do what you love, and love what you do.’ I love food and wine and sharing that love with others,” she says. “I loved the adrenaline rush of service, I loved the creativity, the science and the sensory aspect, so I tried my hand at winemaking, and I’ve never looked back.” Her winemaking career began in the lab at De Bortoli’s Yarra Valley operation, where she impressed enough to be asked to stay on as lab manager. A vintage at Ted Lemon’s Littorai in California followed, alongside time in Emilia Romagna and the Rhône Valley, travel across US and European wine regions, and formal study at Charles Sturt University. She then left De Bortoli to work with her father on the family label, eventually leasing the Elgo Winery in the Strathbogie Ranges, managing a production facility for multiple contract clients while growing Pachamama to around 15,000 cases.

The Pacha Mama name came from a trip father and daughter took to Peru. A guide at Machu Picchu told them about Pachamama – Earth Mother, whose kingdom is the earth and plants – and of a libation, a tribute of wine poured on the earth in thanks for its bounty. The spirit of that story runs through everything Jemmeson makes. “The intention was to create delicious wines that give fantastic bang for buck,” she says. “Wines that are not pretentious and anyone can enjoy. Wines that reflect the variations in seasons and are made thoughtfully without too much manipulation.”

“Each year we run small experimental batches with new products and different winemaking techniques, which helps us learn more about our fruit and home in on the style of wines we are aiming to create. These experiments are not always successful – some miss spectacularly – but it’s in these failures that the greatest lessons are learnt.”

The Joval acquisition in 2024 has shifted the operational context considerably without changing the philosophy. “In a major milestone, Pachamama and Cloak and Dagger were acquired by Joval Family Wines,” says Jemmeson. “I’ve transitioned with the brands into a winemaker and brand ambassador role, working with a larger team and expanded resources to continue building the wines and their reach.” Through Joval, she now has access to estate vineyards owned, leased and managed within the group – the Yarra Valley sites in particular a source of growing excitement. “This is only the second year working with them for me,” she says. “I’m exploring nuances in the fruit, refining style, and seeing where these vineyards take us.” A subtle packaging refinement has also been made, keeping the DNA of both brands intact while adding warmth and detail. “It’s been a period of real transition and growth, both for the brands and for me.”

“My dad had a catchphrase: ‘Do what you love, and love what you do.’ I love food and wine and sharing that love with others. …I first tried my hand at cooking. I went to culinary school and worked in kitchens around Melbourne before realising that it wasn’t for me. I loved the adrenaline rush of service, I loved the creativity, the science and the sensory aspect, so I tried my hand at winemaking, and I’ve never looked back.”

The flexibility Jemmeson has built into the operation was never incidental – it was the point. When she saw how difficult the industry made it for women with children to stay in winemaking, she set up her own structure deliberately differently. “I couldn’t see how I could raise a family working as a winemaker,” she says. “The vintage expectations are enormous and aren’t particularly conducive to raising children. I started my own business so that I could set it up differently – to provide flexibility to working mums including myself, so that I could do both: raise my beautiful son and continue doing what I love.” That commitment to the broader industry has deepened: in 2025, Jemmeson graduated from Wine Australia’s Future Leaders program and joined the DEIW Committee, contributing to conversations around diversity and inclusion in the industry.

In the winery, Jemmeson has no absolute rules – only an ongoing curiosity and a willingness to fail productively. “Each year we run small experimental batches with new products and different winemaking techniques, which helps us learn more about our fruit and home in on the style of wines we are aiming to create,” she says. “These experiments are not always successful – some miss spectacularly – but it’s in these failures that the greatest lessons are learnt.” The range currently spans pinot noir, shiraz, chardonnay, pinot gris, riesling, sangiovese, nebbiolo, prosecco and fiano across the Pachamama and Cloak and Dagger labels, with gamay and more fiano on the horizon. The regions she works with – Yarra Valley, Heathcote, King Valley and beyond – were chosen for the fit between variety and place. “I have always been a strong believer in the power of the right grape grown in the right place.”

The vision from here is refinement and steady expansion. “I want to keep making serious wines that still feel fun – overdelivering on quality while staying accessible and offering great value,” she says. “That balance is where I see us thriving.” After a decade of building something from a retirement project into a genuine wine brand, and now into the hands of a larger family – her own, and Joval’s – Callie Jemmeson is precisely where she always planned to be.

Home > Top Winemakers

Doug Lilburne’s journey into wine started in kitchens in New York as a teenager, progressing through culinary school then to setting up a farm-to-table food program at a winery in Northern California. Winery work eventually drew him away from the stove, and vintages around the world followed. Now settled into his leased winery and vineyard in the Yarra Valley’s Steels Creek, Lilburne’s Mise en Place label focuses on home fruit and organic vineyards in the Pyrenees and Great Western to currently make a syrah, syrah and touriga nacional blend, and a syrah rosé. The winemaking is manual and traditional, with only sulphur added, and not always. The first release was in 2022 with wines from the 2021 vintage.

Producer
Region

Great Western Pyrenees Victoria
RRP

$
Vintage
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Doug Lilburne’s journey into wine started in kitchens in New York as a teenager, progressing through culinary school then to setting up a farm-to-table food program at a winery in Northern California. Winery work eventually drew him away from the stove, and vintages around the world followed. Now settled into his leased winery and vineyard in the Yarra Valley’s Steels Creek, Lilburne’s Mise en Place label focuses on home fruit and organic vineyards in the Pyrenees and Great Western to currently make a syrah, syrah and touriga nacional blend, and a syrah rosé. The winemaking is manual and traditional, with only sulphur added, and not always. The first release was in 2022 with wines from the 2021 vintage.

“Modern society lacks a connection to the land; without a grounding force, we will all be floating in the Metaverse soon,” says Lilburne. “Winegrowing might be a challenging way to turn a buck, but it does provide immense satisfaction in the way that it links us to the dirt. There’s something special about relying on your own hands to put food on the table. My family has had a bookshop for close to 40 years, and I’ve always looked up to my parents for their entrepreneurial spirit and pure grit to get through the challenging times.”

Lilburne is a chef by trade, working in kitchens in New York from an early age. “I started my working career in the kitchen at the age of 15, flipping egg and bacon sandwiches” he says. “My substantial cooking experience took place in Northern California where I set up a small agricultural farm food program for Reeve Wines in Healdsburg – everything was grown on property! …When I found winemaking and jumped into harvest hopping, jumping from Northern California to Australia and New Zealand.”

“I’m in this game to make honest wines, without the nonsense. Just grapes and sulphur – if desired. There are plenty of winemakers doing this, and I’m no different. …It’s a fine line between good wine and vinegar, so learning when to intervene is crucial.”

Landing in the Yarra in 2014, he skipped from one job to the next. For two years, Lilburne worked as a cellar-hand at Yering Station, but connections with Ben Haines, and Gary Mills from Jamsheed perhaps had the most influence on his local career. “I worked quite closely with both winemakers, picking up tips and tricks along the way,” he says.

The Mise en Place story could have started then, but Lilburne had another skill that he wanted to properly hone before he dove in. “I left for many years to pursue biodynamic production in Northern California… My time in coastal Sonoma County carried a strong focus on organics and later biodynamics under the guidance of Ted Lemon of Littorai. After a 6-month stint at Littorai, I spent the next two years tending the vines at Porter-Bass Estate, home to the Littorai Mays Canyon Vineyard.”

The pull to the Yarra was strong, though, and with his practical biodynamic apprenticeship served, it was time to head back. “When it was time to move back to Melbourne, I knew exactly who to call,” Lilburne says. “And I’m grateful I returned to the Yarra, as there’s plenty of potential to carve a new path in a region that is stuck in its traditional ways.”

That return to the Yarra saw Lilburne working in Steels Creek alongside Haines and collaborating on projects together, including their CO wines, which are co-ferments of orchard fruits and grapes. The pair also converted the almost 2.5 hectares of vines to organic management. “We eliminated the use of herbicide in the winter of 2021,” he says, “replacing the winter spray program with grazing sheep. It’s a no brainer – fertilisation alongside weed management? I’ll take that over dead soils any day.”

Today, Haines has decamped to his home territory, purchasing a vineyard in the Adelaide Hill, while Lilburne now shares the winery with Mitch Sokolin (Eleven Sons Wine and Gray & Gray restaurant in Northcote). A newly signed lease will give Lilburne the chance to better understand the vineyard as he continues a regenerative path.

“The home block is planted to cabernet and syrah, and the grapes hold unbelievable acid, partly due to the cooling breeze that consistently runs down the valley. This acidity allows me to showcase these ‘forgotten’ varieties in the best light,” says Lilburne, referencing the general disdain for cabernet in less traditional circles and the challenges in selling Yarra Valley shiraz.

That location is also one where he believes a groundswell of exciting makers is nuancing the face of the Yarra. “The western edge of the Yarra Valley is home to plenty of talented winemakers,” he says. “Witnessing the quality produced by Bobar, Cré and Luke Lambert is inspiring; it confirms my belief that Steels Creek has unreal potential.”

Lilburne also has a day job, which he took on in May 2021. That role is selling wine wholesale with Lo-Fi Wines, who work with European, Australian and New Zealand wineries that, unsurprisingly, work in a lo-fi manner, with a consistent theme of organics and sustainability. “This work has helped me widen my knowledge of European natural wine which would otherwise be challenging,” he says.

While the home site is a big focus, the Mise en Place portfolio will always come from diverse sites. “I just returned from an eye-opening wine buying trip to France,” says Lilburne. “I was struck by the number of perceived famous and well-to-do houses that are making wine from regions that are not their home turf. Negociant project seemed popular… Frost, disease, hail and fires… these are natural events that attack the vine in a moment’s notice and leave the poor paysan vigneron without a living. I took this to heart and thought to myself, if I’m going to grow grapes and make wine as my main source of income, I better diversify my risk as well.”

That approach sees him working out of Great Western and the Pyrenees currently, but always underpinned by a core principle. “The wines in the 2022 range are either home grown organic or purchased from organic growers. This is something I feel strongly about. With that said, I’m really looking forward to taking on new vineyard sites in the future with the hopes of shifting conventional techniques over to more sustainable and organic practices. One shift in conventional thinking can open the door to a more sustainable future.”

The other core theme for Lilburne’s wines is to use traditional techniques that aren’t guided by dogma. “I’m in this game to make honest wines, without the nonsense. Just grapes and sulphur – if desired. There are plenty of winemakers doing this, and I’m no different. …It’s a fine line between good wine and vinegar, so learning when to intervene is crucial. My continued focus will be to improve the home block soils and in turn the quality of the wine.”

Home > Top Winemakers

Charlie Mann traded in the recording studio for winemaking after a chance meeting with Owen Latta. An epiphany with one of Latta’s wines saw him ditch his long commute to take up work at Eastern Peake, where he still works. The Charles Oliver label was born in Mann’s second vintage, with 2023 being the fourth for the label. The offering is compact, focused on organic vineyards and earlier picking. Reds and whites both clock in at lower alcohols, with texture and fragrance uncluttered by oak, and are bottled with no fining or filtration and only a small dose of sulphur. The 2022 release saw two grenache cuvées and a syrah grenache blend, all from the Pyrenees.

Producer
Region

Pyrenees Victoria
RRP

$
Vintage
Variety/Varieties
Alc./Vol.

%

Charlie Mann traded in the recording studio for winemaking after a chance meeting with Owen Latta. An epiphany with one of Latta’s wines saw him ditch his long commute to take up work at Eastern Peake, where he still works. The Charles Oliver label was born in Mann’s second vintage, with 2023 being the fourth for the label. The offering is compact, focused on organic vineyards and earlier picking. Reds and whites both clock in at lower alcohols, with texture and fragrance uncluttered by oak, and are bottled with no fining or filtration and only a small dose of sulphur. The 2022 release saw two grenache cuvées and a syrah grenache blend, all from the Pyrenees.

“It’s great fun making and sharing wine with family, friends and strangers,” says Mann. “I like experimenting as well, nothing too crazy, but still testing the boundaries to see what happens. As for making wine without additions, this is how I have been taught, and how I think wine should be made… Less large-scale industrial products, more small communities with lots of growers, makers, creators and producers feeding these communities.”

Growing up, Mann’s main passion was music. He trained with a few instruments and was encouraged by his parents to pursue music throughout his schooling. “I was lucky enough to attend a secondary school that had a strong music program. This is where I found my passion for recording music. I went on to pursue this as a career, working in recording studios in Melbourne, mixing live bands etc.”

“Loosen your grip – you can’t control everything, and that’s where the beauty is.”

While that career was a fulfilling one, the commute between his home in Ballarat and Melbourne started to take its toll. “I became tired of that and started floating the idea of looking for other work in another industry,” Mann says.

Wine was not remotely on the horizon then, but a chance meeting with Owen Latta (Eastern Peake and Latta Vino) in 2019 through a mutual friend saw him change course immediately. “He showed me some Eastern Peake pinot noir, and I was blown away. I remember thinking, ‘So, this is what wine really tastes like.’ No more rummaging through Dan Murphy’s sub-$10 bins for me!”

Striking up a friendship, Mann went on to work that year’s harvest with Latta at his family’s Coghill’s Creek winery. “Chris Dilworth was working there also,” Mann says. “I stayed for the pruning and then the spring and summer. By the time the 2020 vintage rolled around, I was hooked. I asked Owen if I could make some wine there. He said yes, so Charles Oliver Wines was created with a tonne of certified organic grenache from Shays Flat.”

“I mostly make wine from organic fruit with no additions or adjustments, bar a little sulphur. Entirely wild primary and malolactic fermentations, with no fining or filtering.”

“I am very lucky to be making wine in Coghills Creek, very close to the Macedon Ranges. It is a great community and very supportive. There are a lot of like-minded, amazing growers and makers.”

From epiphany to making wine for his own label, Mann’s turnaround was remarkably quick, but there’s a continuity from his previous career that he says resonates. “Making wine is not too dissimilar to recording music. It is about capturing and preserving a special moment in time. It’s about gently guiding and encouraging the vines/grapes/must/wine or musicians to get the greatest performance and documenting that.”

Mann takes that analogy further, citing texture as a common thread. “There are so many stages in the recording process where you can add texture to a sound: the live room, microphone choice, preamplifiers, equalisers, compressors, magnetic tape, the list goes on. This is the same with wine for fruit ripeness, the type of press you use, skin contact, maceration, lees, oak, clay, élevage, etc. You are trying to make your best effort to enhance what you are capturing.”

Today, Mann is still working at Eastern Peake and making his wine there. “I am very lucky to be making wine in Coghills Creek, very close to the Macedon Ranges,” he says. “It is a great community and very supportive. There are a lot of like-minded, amazing growers and makers.”

That similar philosophical angle sees Mann working in a lo-fi way. “I mostly make wine from organic fruit with no additions or adjustments, bar a little sulphur,” he says. “Entirely wild primary and malolactic fermentations, with no fining or filtering.” Not forcing things is also key, which is a golden rule he lives by. “Loosen your grip – you can’t control everything, and that’s where the beauty is.”

The maxim that great wine is made in the vineyard is one that Mann also stands by. “Unfortunately, I am not farming my own fruit, but try to buy the best farmed fruit I can source in the area. I do help farm the vines at Eastern Peake Vineyard, which we farm organically. …There is definitely less stress being a negociant style business. I see the stresses in the farming side, and Mother Nature has much more control on the outcome.”

Mann’s works largely with organic fruit from the Shays Flat and Landsborough vineyards in the Pyrenees, selecting varieties that he believes perform best there, including grenache, touriga nacional, cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, and sauvignon blanc. That range will ebb and flow, but the theme so far is earlier picked reds with shorter time on skins and both textural and skinsy lower alcohol whites.

“I try to make wine that I would enjoy drinking,” says Mann. “Whether that is a terroir driven red, darker style rosé or textural white, they all have to be interesting and engaging. From the choice in variety, to the farming, to the winemaking, and even the packaging. Also, I try to have some fun along the way.”

One thing is for sure, the Charles Oliver production won’t be expanding significantly anytime soon. “I don’t think I want to expand anymore. Keeping it small suits me well. I am still trying to find a good balance between my label, working at Eastern Peake and being a great husband and dad.”

Home > Wines We Love > 2021 Latta ‘Rouge Deluxe’ Syrah

This is the first syrah that Owen Latta has made since 2015, and it’s stunning stuff. An incredibly complex and darkly seductive wine, with wild fruits accented by exotic spices and craggy minerals – midweight, chewy and speaking loudly of place.

Producer
Latta
Region

Pyrenees
RRP

$32
Vintage

2021
Variety/Varieties

Shiraz (Syrah)
Alc./Vol.

13.5%

Coming from the Chapoutier vineyard in the Pyrenees, this is the first syrah that Owen Latta has made since 2015. And it’s stunning stuff, an incredibly complex and darkly seductive wine, with wild fruits accented by exotic spices and craggy minerals – midweight, chewy and speaking loudly of place.

Tasting note

This is so bright but also so mineral, with wild dark fruits – forest berries, sour plums and cherries – laced with a granitic minerality, white pepper and dark spices such as brown cardamom, star anise and cassia. There’s a gentle spritz on the palate that marries with natural acid zip and linear tannins to give this a buoyant freshness that sits in balance with the dark fruit flavours and crushed rock mineral notes.

Themes of this wine

Syrah/shiraz

Shiraz dominates the Australian wine industry, accounting for nearly a third of this country’s vines. The grape’s traditional home is in France’s Northern Rhône, with wines that combine elegance and power, while Australia is perhaps best known for the muscular styles from warmer areas. Today, drinkers of Australian shiraz are spoilt for choice with expressions ranging from the elegant and spicy to the monumental.

2021 Latta Vino ‘Quartz Bianco’ Sauvignon Blanc Pyrenees

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Sauvignon blanc

Lees ageing

Pyrenees

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Syrah/shiraz

Pyrenees

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