Ray Chen
Ray Chen is a New Zealand-trained winemaker whose Victorian label Rongo Wines draws fruit from single vineyards across the state – currently the Strathbogie Ranges and the Yarra Valley – and is built around a single governing idea: wine as part of a food experience, specifically the food Chen grew up eating. The current range spans a skin-contact riesling, a straight riesling, a syrah, a rosé and an aglianico, all unfined and unfiltered, all made with a researcher’s instinct for exploring what different winemaking approaches can reveal from the same source of fruit. The name Rongo refers to the Māori god of cultivated food – an anchor in Chen’s New Zealand heritage and a deliberate statement about where wine belongs: at the table, alongside something worth eating.
