I learnt the value of provenance growing up on the land; my parents, uncles and aunts doing the first-generation migrant thing, growing both food and grapes. I’ve always known what it means to grow quality produce. Straight out of university I gained experience with a company growing and selling fresh produce; a lesson not just in their drive for quality but of customers who were fastidious and demanding of it. The best type, as they keep you on your toes.  

When you sell fruit, consumers make their judgement on taste, looks, smell, and even the feel. If it’s reached a shop, there could be ten different grades for assessing the quality that have been ticked off before that piece of fruit has reached a consumer’s hand. But in wine, people are a step removed from the raw ingredient. A shroud of secrecy still exists to the process in some people’s minds, or perhaps a confusion as to the questions to ask. 

Provenance is the source of the grapes and the skill of the grower. For me these are the most important elements when you consider that winemaking is a conversion process from grape to glass. I was a winemaker long before I was a grape grower, so I know how to play with technique and style. But, if the grapes aren’t great, nothing will disguise that fact.

Making wine, for me, means growing grapes. I think about the character of the fruit, and what I need to do to bottle that. I don’t think too much about what I’m going to do in the winery, knowing that if the fruit is great, you shouldn’t have to do much. There’s no great secret, good wine is made in the vineyard. It always comes back to provenance.