James Turpie started his wine journey in New Zealand, working vintages for Pernod-Ricard in Marlborough, then falling in with Central Otago legend Greg Hay (of Wet Jacket, Peregrine, and Chard Farm fame). On his return to Australia, Turpie entered wine sales roles at Vinomofo and The Wine Collective, before landing in the Hunter in 2020 to take on a role at M&J Becker. He started James Edward Wines in 2021, explicitly looking to model his wines on those of Central Otago. “Having moved back to Australia from Central Otago, there weren’t many wines here similar to those that I fell in love with across the Tasman,” he says, “so I wanted to try to echo some of the things I loved about those wines.” This inspiration means that he tries to make, in his words, “Wines whose fruit generosity, aromatics, and varietal character are the focal point as opposed to the acid/structure.”
While he makes his wines in the Hunter Valley, Turpie mostly sources his fruit from other regions – especially Tumbarumba, which he was drawn to by virtue of its cool, Otago-like climate. “I love cool-climate wines, and when I returned to Australia I struggled to find a chardonnay that I loved until I tried a Tumbarumba chardonnay that blew me away,” he says. “The growers of Tumbarumba are some of the proudest and most dedicated people and they’re the kind of people I love working with … I believe [they] are producing some of the best cool-climate fruit in the country. The aromatic varieties – gewürztraminer and pinot gris in particular – are of incredible standard, as are the pinot noir and chardonnay.” Some shiraz from the Hunter and chenin blanc from Gundagai round out his fruit sources.
Beyond trying to bring a little Kiwi savoir-faire to the Australian wine scene, the focus of the James Edward Wines label is relatively traditional. “I make approachable wines that are a true expression of the variety,” he says of the James Edward Wines label. “They’re varieties that I love, highlighting what I love about them.” While he clearly adores Tumbarumba fruit, it comes with its own unique difficulties – especially the pinot noir. “The main challenge in regards to pinot noir has been a lack of clonal diversity due to the region being previously planted for sparkling base [wines],” Turpie says. “Given the lack of Dijon/Burgundian clones in the region, it has actually been really enjoyable to make a more pretty and elegant style of pinot, and try to coax the ‘pinosity’ out of the clone available.”
“Given the lack of Dijon/Burgundian clones in Tumbarumba, it has actually been really enjoyable to make a more pretty and elegant style of pinot, and try to coax the ‘pinosity’ out of the clone available.”
In contrast to his main label, his Maison de Turps label is a little more anarchic. It draws its genesis to a winemaking accident during his first vintage. “In my first year, I could only source shiraz grapes, but persisted in trying to make a pinot-style rosé, using carbonic maceration to encourage aromatics and spice while trying to limit colour and body,” he recalls. “Being shiraz, it took on plenty of colour and was full-bodied – it wasn’t something that you’d ever call a rosé, let alone a pinot-style rosé. While I’d never planned to make a pét-nat, we had some really good looking pinot gris in the winery and on a whim – and [in] some light panic – I tried them together and they looked great. They were both quite full-bodied – I thought some bubbles would help to lift both wines and add some vibrancy, and thus my first pét-nat was born. It taught me to be flexible, try new things, have fun where I can, and not to get weighed down by mistakes.”
While the wines of each label are quite different, the winemaking approach is fundamentally very similar. “I like to have as little impact on the wine as I can,” Turpie says. “I don’t add any sulphur, enzyme, finings, et cetera at the crush, and all wines are wild fermented (including malolactic). A modest amount of sulphur is added for maturation which is almost always enough to see it at 30 parts per million free SO₂ at bottling, where the wines are unfined and almost always unfiltered. If filtration is used, it is passed through very light filter pads so as not to detract from the wine and to keep as much integrity of the wine as possible.”
“I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel with the way that I make wine, but I do want to present a slightly different style of wine than we typically see in Australia.”
Beyond his hands-off approach to additives and filtration, Turpie’s winemaking philosophy is about preserving aromatic impact as much as possible. “My wife and I have a saying, ‘cold and neglect’,” he says. “Meaning, keep the temperature of the ferments cool to retain aromatics and ensure a happy, healthy ferment. And ‘neglect’ is more of a reminder to not be too hands-on with the wine or let stress influence my decision making process.” He cites chardonnay as an example. “When it comes to chardonnay specifically, at the end of fermentation or start of maturation, it can go through through an awkward phase where it shows a lime-y or banana-y character which I am not very fond of,” he says. “For my first two vintages, this was the source of great stress, but it has taught me that time is a really important ingredient and tool in the toolbox.”
Turpie thinks of the Hunter Valley winemaking community as another important component of his practice. “One of the reasons I made winemaking my career is the generosity and encouragement that I have experienced in the local community,” he says. “In particular, over the last few years I have worked with James Becker (M & J Becker), Mem Hemmings (Meredith Wines) and Peta Kotz (Sabi-Wabi), who have all been incredibly generous with their knowledge, experience, insights, and moral support. Working alongside or peripherally to such talented and thoughtful people drives me to try to meet my potential, and do what I can to support others along the way.”
As for the future, he has no grand ambitions beyond getting to keep on doing what he loves. “My core three wines will always be chardonnay, pinot noir, and gewürztraminer,” he says. “I plan to grow these a little bit more, whilst still leaving room to experiment and have fun with other varieties and styles.” Perhaps not shockingly, his eye is wandering to further cool-climate fruit sources, including a return to Otago. “I would also like to make small parcels from Central Otago as well as sticking around Tumbarumba and potentially Coal River Valley in Australia,” he adds. But while his Kiwi sojourn has shaped his winemaking philosophy, Turpie retains a characteristically Australian self-deprecating streak. “I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel with the way that I make wine,” he says, “but I do want to present a slightly different style of wine than we typically see in Australia.”
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