Haydn Black and Darcy ‘Ginger’ Naunton started Black & Ginger with too many beers around a campfire and a wine they’d been talking about making for years. Ten vintages later, the label is celebrating its first decade with a cellar door – more wine bar than tasting room, with comfy couches and a table at the centre of it, which tells you exactly what the project has always been about. Based in the Grampians and drawing primarily from the Arrawatta Vineyard, Black & Ginger makes wines from interesting varieties that most people in the region aren’t growing: grenache, orange muscat, graciano, tinta roriz, tinta cão, touriga nacional, and a five-variety Iberian-inspired red blend called Cinco Rojas alongside the label’s shiraz and rosé. The approach is simple, direct and unapologetically fun.
Black started his wine career working for a fine wine merchant in Melbourne in 2006 before commencing winemaking studies and landing his first vintage at Giant Steps with Steve Flamsteed in 2010. Stints with Ben Ranken at Galli Estate, two harvests at Rombauer Vineyards in the Napa Valley, and eventually five years at Best’s in Great Western with Justin Purser followed. It was that last role that settled him in the Grampians for good. “I came to Best’s for a vintage job, and haven’t left the Grampians,” he says. “The community and people, the history, the food scene has grown and grown in the years I’ve been here.” He launched Black & Ginger in 2015 alongside his day job, and left Best’s in 2018 to focus on the label full-time.
The philosophy has never been complicated. “Wine is just fermented grape juice – it shouldn’t be scary or full of bullshit,” he says. “Keep it simple and enjoyable. I make wines that I want to drink, with my friends.” The label’s identity took a more distinctive turn in 2019 when Black discovered the Arrawatta Vineyard – home to orange muscat, graciano and a suite of Portuguese varieties that nobody else in the Grampians was making wine from. “The Grampians makes a huge amount of shiraz,” he says. “I wanted to get away from that, so we focused on the grenache, muscat and Cinco blend.” The Cinco Rojas – a blend of grenache, graciano, tinta roriz, tinta cão and touriga nacional – is now a core range staple. The Miss Piggy orange muscat and riesling blend has developed its own loyal following.
The home vineyard, Hounds Run, has been progressively converted to certified organic farming, with the cordon height lowered and cane pruning introduced. “Larger and more even bunches have led to a more balanced wine,” Black notes. Reduced disease pressure has been an unexpected benefit of the Grampians’ increasing drought conditions. “The lack of rainfall has made it challenging to keep up the water, but it has made it easier to manage the disease pressure – I only did three or four sprays last year.” A cane cut riesling – where the cane is cut before harvest so the vine stops feeding the grapes, allowing them to hang and concentrate naturally – was made last year with the fruit hanging out for weeks and drying out perfectly.
The winemaking across the range is as direct as the philosophy. Grenache nouveau goes into bottle as soon as possible after pressing with no oak or maturation – freshness is the point. The shiraz, made only in very good years from the certified organic estate fruit, uses plenty of whole bunch – where entire clusters including stems go into the fermenter, adding spice and structural complexity – and neutral oak. The rosé is made with specific intent rather than as an afterthought, with shiraz picked and pressed specifically for the wine, a touch of traminer blended in and a couple of grams of residual sugar left for texture. “Make the rosé deliberately,” he says. “Dry and pale is boring.”
After ten years of making wine without a home of their own, the cellar door that opened in 2025 represents a significant milestone. “After ten years of making wine for ourselves, we’ve finally opened our own cellar door – more of a wine bar, and a reflection of ourselves, and how we enjoy our wine,” says Black. “Around the table or on a bunch of comfy couches.” What’s coming next: a chardonnay going into a brand new puncheon, made in what Black describes as an over-the-top old school style; and a small parcel of pinot meunier from a special vineyard well south of the Grampians. The core range is locked in, but the curiosity never stops. “We can take extra little bits of fruit – even if it’s only a one-off, it gets people excited to try new things.” Ten years in, and Black & Ginger is still exactly what it was around that campfire.
