Meg Wallace

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Meg Wallace is a winemaker at Billy Button Wines in Victoria’s Alpine Valleys whose Nacre label – launched from the 2021 vintage – makes a small, intentional range of wines from the region’s Italian varieties, with vermentino and refosco at its current core. Named for mother of pearl, and in tribute to five generations of women in Wallace’s family all sharing the name Margaret, Nacre is a quietly personal project built around the particular parcels and growers she has come to know best. The wines are textural, savoury and handled with a light hand – a label from a region whose Italian variety credentials are still only beginning to be understood.

Meg Wallace came to winemaking the long way round – through Sydney hospitality, a stint in London, a wine bar near London Bridge, and an unforgettable few weeks in Tuscany that turned a casual appreciation into something more purposeful. Back in Australia by 2011, she moved to rural NSW and began studying winemaking at Charles Sturt University, spending five years alongside Paul Bailey at Tumblong Estates in Gundagai while she completed her degree. The Alpine Valleys found her almost by accident in 2019 – a last-minute vintage position at Billy Button Wines – but she recognised immediately that this was her place. Nacre Wine, launched in 2021 as a small-batch project alongside her winemaking role at Billy Button, focuses on the Italian varieties the region does particularly well: vermentino and refosco in the current range, with barbera and sangiovese also in her sights. The wines are textural, savoury and rooted in the character of the specific parcels she sources from – a small label with a clear sense of what it’s for.

The name Nacre – the technical term for mother of pearl – carries its own lineage. Wallace, whose full name is Margaret, shares that name with her great-great-great-grandmother, her grandmother, mother, aunt and herself, across five generations. Nacre is, in part, a tribute to those women. “The name pays tribute to beauty, purity and strength,” she says. “Timeless elegance and the enduring legacy of women in my family, all linked by the name Margaret.” It’s a quiet but meaningful thread running through the label, and one that sits comfortably alongside the wines themselves – understated, carefully made, nothing to prove.

Wallace works with fruit from dedicated growers across the Alpine Valleys – a region she describes as a treasure trove of obscure varieties farmed by vignerons who genuinely know their land. The vermentino comes from the Ferraro Vineyard in Myrtleford, the refosco from Dalbosco Vineyard in Porepunkah and Greenacres Vineyard in Merriang South. Both are varieties that suit the region’s climate well. “I love the saline and herbal qualities in my Vermentino,” she says, “and I’m particularly drawn to the rustic savouriness of Italian red varietals such as barbera, sangiovese and refosco.” The approach in the winery matches that sensibility: hands-on, humble, and guided by the fruit rather than a fixed formula. “Listen to the fruit. It’s about being fluid – everything changes year to year, variety to variety.”

That her label exists at all is largely a function of the environment at Billy Button. Jo Marsh and Glenn James – her mentors and employers – encouraged her early, and the practical arrangement of making Nacre wines within her day-job winery removed enough of the financial pressure to make it possible. “The energy and passion at Billy Button is contagious. I caught the bug,” she says. “While studying I quickly realised I would love to have my own label – I just thought it would be a lot further down the track.” Being surrounded by upwards of 30 varieties through Billy Button’s broad portfolio has also sharpened her own preferences; where she once had an appreciation for Italian varieties, she now has a deep working knowledge of them. The range beyond the vermentino and refosco has also included a blanc – a blend of pinot gris, riesling and gewürztraminer – a grüner veltliner, and a shiraz. It changes each year, small-batch, one or two wines at a time.

The Alpine Valleys feels like home now, and Wallace isn’t looking anywhere else. “The Alpine Valleys is a treasure trove of obscure varieties and the quality of these sometimes tiny parcels is a joy to work with.” It’s a region still gathering the attention it deserves, and Nacre is one of the labels making the case quietly and well.

Meg Wallace

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