“After growing up in the Limestone Coast, coming back to work here was not part of the plan,” Lauren Hansen says. “As a teenager I couldn’t wait to get out of here and move to the city – like many country kids, I imagine!” Her desire to get out of dodge landed her in a viticulture and oenology degree, which she duxed, and then on to vintages at Brokenwood, Bannockburn, Maddens Rise, Adelina, and international experience in Austria, New Zealand and Bordeaux. Returning to the Limestone Coast wasn’t the plan, but opportunity knocked. “As a baby winemaker fresh out of uni, I always said there were a couple of winemakers I’d love to work with in Coonawarra – so when the opportunity came up to work with Pete Bissell at Balnaves, I had to take it.” Three years as assistant winemaker at Balnaves led to a winemaking role at Penley Estate alongside Kate Goodman, where she stayed until early 2026.
The departure from Penley was earlier than planned, and Hansen met it with characteristic directness. Her Nan’s words of wisdom: “Bite off more than you can chew, and chew like buggery.” She is, as she puts it, on it. “I’m going to have to stop referring to Bloomfield as a side-hustle,” she says. “It’s a little sooner than planned for Bloomy to be a fully fledged day job, but I love every aspect of it so I’ve got to give it a crack.” The Limestone Coast community has already rallied. “The pure love and support from my Limestone Coast community in the last month has been incredible – so many generous offers to help out, whether that’s a bit of space in a winery, a few cellar door shifts to help pay the mortgage, or a bloody lovely farmer trying to work out if any of their sheds might be suitable.”
“I could have made a traditional variety from an epic site many times over – but I really wanted to get a chance to play around with grape varieties I wasn’t already working with.”
“Bloomfield started from a desire to do things my own way: to push boundaries, experiment, and never stop learning,” Hansen says. “It’s my creative playground, where no one can say no to that crazy idea, the new variety, or the technique I want to trial. My vision and ethos behind the wines is for them to be humble, honest and fun. I want to make my wines approachable – but also thoughtful and genuine. Something you can sit in the sunshine with your pals and enjoy without thinking, or something you could dig in and get super nerdy about how the flinty terroir is showing up in the glass.”
Finding the right variety-region match was the first challenge. “I could have made a traditional variety from an epic site many times over,” Hansen says, “but I really wanted to get a chance to play around with grape varieties I wasn’t already working with. By digging around and finding the growers with a few rows of something different, I was already chatting with the people who were thinking outside the square.” Creativity is at the core of why wine drew her in. “Creating a product and then seeing people enjoy it – it really gets me. Making my own wine has really brought me back to that core of why I love what I do – building connections with growers, drinkers, somms, people. Really giving myself permission to not worry about how something ‘should’ be done and just enjoying having the freedom to give it a crack.”
“I want to show a liveliness and bounce – and often find myself using words like ‘vibrant’, ‘juicy’, ‘sassy’, and ‘crunchy’ to describe my wines.”
In the winery, Hansen’s approach eschews any totalising winemaking philosophies in the pursuit of deliciousness. Carbonic maceration – a technique where whole uncrushed grapes ferment in a carbon dioxide-rich environment, producing wines that are light, fruity and low in tannin – is a key tool, and she shows off her mastery of it with her petit verdot, turning this traditionally dense, tannic variety into an eminently smashable light red. The grüner veltliner sees three days of skin contact – enough to build texture, not enough to push it into orange wine territory. “I try to have a light touch on my wines and really let the fruit shine, keeping a vibrancy to them,” she says. “I want to show a liveliness and bounce – and often find myself using words like ‘vibrant’, ‘juicy’, ‘sassy’ and ‘crunchy’ to describe them.”
The community in the Limestone Coast, she says, is a huge part of the reason she stayed. “I love the cross-section of people you get to chat to at a ‘tea night’ at the Coonawarra Club, and the willingness of other winemakers, grape growers, business owners and mechanics to lend a hand when you’re in a tight spot.” The mechanics reference is not hypothetical. “I’ve had the mechanic from another winery helping me hot-wire a forklift after someone lost the key. I’ve had a good friend drive multiple trips to pick up grapes from growers while I’m working my day job – and then also deal with busted tyres on the side of the road.”
With more time now entirely her own, the challenge will be restraint. “With word spreading around the Limestone Coast that I’m looking for weird and wonderful varieties to make, I’m going to have to really reign myself in and make sure the range doesn’t suddenly blow out.” Another variety is likely to appear in 2026. Some exciting new growers are already in the conversation. After a recent trip to Italy, Italian varieties may not be far behind. The longer-term dream – a little space to make wine, a small vineyard, chickens frolicking, a record player in the corner – is developing. “There’s a building I drive past on occasion that has excellent Bloomfield vibes,” she says. Slowly but surely.
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