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.”
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