The sites that I farm myself, or have worked closely with the grower for many years.

It all began in 2017 with the purchase of a little Shiraz vineyard in Heathcote — a rambling old property with a homestead, a cellar door, a winemaking shed, and something far more precious than any of that: over twenty years of relationships with some truly special growers and their vineyards.

Those relationships are everything.

Technically, I started as a négociant. Most of my wines were made from sourced fruit rather than estate-grown grapes. But the word doesn't quite capture it. Year after year, I return to the same sites. I walk the same rows. I read the same soils, and learn how each vineyard breathes through its own microclimate, and the particular mood of each vintage. It feels far closer to estate growing than sourcing fruit ever could.

In September 2024, I began farming five acres on Straws Lane in Hesket, in the Macedon Ranges. Pinot Noir and Gewürztraminer, planted close, at 800 metres. Fertile volcanic soils. A cool, high site with its own story to tell. I'm only the fourth custodian of this block, and I feel incredibly privileged to look after a vineyard that's almost forty years old.

That intimacy is what my Core Wines are built on. Wines of purpose and patience.

Each year, my goal isn't to reinvent them. It's to listen a little more closely. Refine a little more carefully. Let each wine speak more honestly of where it came from. Small, considered steps forward. Nothing taken lightly.

I want these wines to feel elegant and composed. Wines you return to, year after year, with a quiet excitement for what this vintage will reveal.

They matter deeply to me. I hope, in time, they come to matter to you too.