Praeter has been an ongoing concern for Matthew Large since 2018, but the opportunity to manage four hectares of vines across two blocks in the Adelaide Hills was the catalyst for him to hand in his notice as senior winemaker at Shaw + Smith, where he had been overseeing production of some of the country’s most storied labels (including not only Shaw + Smith itself but also Tolpuddle, MMAD, and The Other Wine Co.) in late 2024. “Moving to farm my own grapes was the big reason I made the leap to doing my own label full-time,” Large 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 think that great wines are all-encompassing – they take in all of the spirit of the vineyard, the season, the people who farm it and make it into wine, and ultimately this is translated to the person who later tastes it. In order to properly make something that achieves all this, it requires all of your energy and focus. I hope little by little to work towards growing the grapes and making the wines that can achieve this kind of expression.”
It’s a big move for what has, historically, been a small operation. Praeter was founded as Large’s love letter to nebbiolo, a variety he fell for while working the 2017 vintage at Barolo’s Figli Luigi Oddero. On his return to Australia, he began thinking about how he could make high-quality nebbiolo from his home turf, and quickly found nebbiolo fruit from the Malakoff vineyard in Victoria’s Pyrenees. Praeter’s first wine, the Malakoff-sourced Strange Fog Nebbiolo, has since become something of a standard-bearer for a second wave of Australian-grown nebbiolos. Working with fruit sourced from Oddero, he quickly turned the project into an international one, adding a Langhe Nebbiolo and declassified Vino Rosso (a blend of syrah, petit verdot, and nebbiolo) to the mix. Since then, the label’s range has waxed and waned – riesling and rosato wines were added, but are no longer produced – with more expansion on the cards now that Large is dedicating himself to Praeter full-time.
“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.”
“I hope to make wines that are elegant, expressive and alive,” Large says of his winemaking philosophy. “I work to prize 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. It is impossible to remove myself from the wines that I make, but I hope that my interpretation is a quiet one, that listens to the vineyard and works hard to arrange and amplify the things that I find beautiful about it.” His approach is inspired by the great wines of the world: “I resound most strongly with those wines that have a deft touch, bring complexity and life to the glass, and have a recognisable identity,” he says.
He draws on his international experience when crafting his nebbiolos, but isn’t averse to going against traditional Italian norms when he wants to. His Langhe Nebbiolo, for example, uses 100% whole bunches in the ferment – something that most traditional Barolo producers would find shocking. “This can definitely be a fermentation method that is high-risk, high reward,” he says of his whole-bunch nebbiolo. “Not in Italy, but earlier in my winemaking career, I learnt how things can go wrong with whole-bunch fermentation in a number of ways – high VA, stuck ferment, yeast spoilage. Sometimes these issues might only present in a small way, but every wine is a lesson regardless. Over time, you can slowly build up an understanding of how to read the ferment – when to respond and when to do nothing. I thankfully have then be able to use this experience to make some wines in Italy that I’m really proud of – 100% whole-bunch expressions of a variety you don’t often see that with. Hopefully something interesting added to the nebbiolo discourse, at the very least.”
“Wine doesn’t exist without the people surrounding it, and it is nothing unless shared.”
Large’s one firm winemaking rule? “I’m a firm believer in no new oak for my own nebbiolo,” he says. “That being said, I’ve had some wonderful wines that do tactfully use oak – because rules are meant to be broken. But 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.”
While it might have been his love of nebbiolo that drew him to the Adelaide Hills, Large’s foray into vineyard management for Praeter is allowing him to come to terms with what it takes to grow top-notch pinot noir and chardonnay. “My biggest focus in this first year has been pruning/vine architecture and soil health,” he says. “I have stopped the use of herbicides and introduced mechanical under-vine management, and began working on soil health – grazing cattle, applying compost, encouraging beneficial grass species as under-vine cover-crops. Combined with focused winter pruning and spring shoot-thinning, I have worked to develop strong vine-architecture and moderated crop-loads which have resulted in fruit of increased intensity. We have harvested the first fruit off these blocks this vintage, and the early signs in the wines are incredibly promising. This is obviously a process that never ends though, and we are simply the first step along the path.”
“I am making wine because I think it is an invigorating and inspiring intersection between the natural environment and humanity,” Large adds. “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.” He sees his future role as less winemaker, more vigneron. “I want to explore the potential of viticulture to be a sustainable, intermeshed part of a complex ecosystem,” he says. “Making wine is the final part of the process, and one that brings me great joy. I also think wine has the ability to bring people together. Whether it be local with surrounding farms and farmers, or wider-spread with the support of other creative endeavours, or international visitors and idea exchange. Wine doesn’t exist without the people surrounding it, and it is nothing unless shared.”
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