Large found his first cellar job in 2013 and studied formally at Charles Sturt University, graduating dux of the Bachelor of Wine Science while simultaneously managing five hectares of pinot noir and chardonnay as assistant winemaker and vineyard manager at Shadowfax in the Macedon Ranges. A harvest in Central Otago in 2016 preceded a pivotal experience in 2017: a vintage at Barolo’s Figli Luigi Oddero, where nebbiolo – the notoriously difficult, late-ripening, thin-skinned variety that produces some of Italy’s most complex and age-worthy wines – took permanent hold. On returning to Australia, Large began sourcing nebbiolo from the Malakoff Vineyard in the Pyrenees and building Praeter quietly alongside his day job. By 2020, that day job was senior winemaker at Shaw + Smith, one of the country’s most admired wine operations. It was excellent. It was also not, ultimately, where he needed to be. “Moving to farm my own grapes was the big reason I made the leap to doing my own label full-time,” he says. “I knew that ultimately I wanted to be growing the fruit that I was making into wine, and I would never be able to do this to the level that I wanted if I didn’t dedicate myself completely.”
“I don’t believe in the ability of the winemaker to be a transparent hand, but instead they act as an interpreter between the vineyard and the bottle.”
The vineyard work has begun in earnest. The Magpie Block in the Southern Fleurieu – a region not widely known as a fine wine GI – was taken over by Large in winter 2024 after sitting mothballed for a full season. He believed in the site’s potential and set about proving it: herbicides removed, cattle grazed through the vineyard in winter, compost applied to build soil health, permanent under-vine cover maintained with a brushcutter rather than cultivation to preserve soil structure and encourage fungal activity. Soft pruning techniques informed by Poussard and the Simonit & Sirch methodology – developed in Italy and focused on preserving sap flow and vine longevity – have been introduced and adapted to the site’s real-world conditions. The vineyard is dry-grown, which makes every percentage point of increased soil carbon directly valuable to the soil’s water-holding capacity. In 2025, an exceptionally dry season tested those foundations hard. “It is a testament to the resilience of the dry-grown vines and soils that the wine off the site in 2025 has managed to retain such freshness and vitality,” he says. The Truscott Block pinot noir in the Adelaide Hills, also under Large’s management, follows the same principles: no herbicides, mechanical under-vine management, grazing, compost, focused pruning and spring shoot-thinning. “This is obviously a process that never ends,” he says. “We are simply the first step along the path.”
“Wine doesn’t exist without the people surrounding it, and it is nothing unless shared.”
The nebbiolo wines that built Praeter’s reputation remain central to the range. Large’s Langhe Nebbiolo is made with 100% whole bunches – a fermentation method – where entire grape clusters including stems go into the fermenter uncrushed – that most traditional Barolo producers would find startling. “This can definitely be a fermentation method that is high-risk, high reward,” he says. “Over time, you can slowly build up an understanding of how to read the ferment – when to respond and when to do nothing.” His one firm rule across all his nebbiolos: no new oak. “The wines that truly inspire me, that I strive for, are pure, transparent expressions of nebbiolo that do so without new oak getting in the way.” New oak barrels contribute strong vanilla and spice flavours that can mask the subtle aromatics and tannin structure that make nebbiolo compelling; aged oak allows gentler oxygenation without adding flavour. The Italian work with Oddero continues alongside the Australian program, giving Large an unusually rare cross-hemispheric perspective on how the same variety behaves in different hands and different soils.
His broader philosophy is rooted in something closer to ecological thinking than conventional winemaking ambition. “I am making wine because I think it is an invigorating and inspiring intersection between the natural environment and humanity,” he says. “We have the opportunity to work intimately with the land, to manage an ecosystem, to farm a primary product that can then be harvested and translated into something that communicates all of this and more.” The wines he aspires to are “elegant, expressive and alive – prizing texture, acidity and aromatics. I don’t believe in the ability of the winemaker to be a transparent hand, but instead they act as an interpreter between the vineyard and the bottle.” The future, as he sees it, belongs to the vigneron. “I want to explore the potential of viticulture to be a sustainable, intermeshed part of a complex ecosystem. Wine doesn’t exist without the people surrounding it, and it is nothing unless shared.”
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