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When a city girl meets a country boy and falls in love, certain things have to be sorted out, like where the future will see the happy couple living. Mark was born and raised in Condobolin, western New South Wales. Condo - home to B & S balls, RM Williams boots and Shannon Noll. His various tactics and manipulations to get me out on to a broad acre wheat and sheep farm were not met with much enthusiasm. Condo was just too far from David Jones for this city girls liking.
I was however, happy to compromise. Searching for clean air and green acres made a lot of sense to me. Our plan to get out of the city was to grow grapes. Mark had farming in his blood and I had wine in mine. Well a small amount actually, but a taste for the wine industry inspired by my family. Mum and Dad had a bottle shop in South Coogee in the 70s and 80s. As a child, I spent a lot of time sitting on the floor of the liquor store, in my school uniform, sticking price tags on wine bottles.
From an early age, I was fascinated by bottle shapes, wine labels and the mysterious lure of popular brands. Black Tower, Blue Nun, Mateus Rosé, Bodega, Ben Ean and Liebfrauwine ruled and Grange Hermitage was less than $5 per bottle. I am not sure of the year but at one point we had a pallet display of Hill of Grace for $2.79 per bottle. After selling the liquor store, Mum went on to become a wine rep for Len Evans and my brother managed the cellars in Bulletin Place, Sydney. Interesting wines were shared and discussed on our family table.
So the idea of growing grapes and making wine seemed like the perfect agricultural pursuit. We both studied viticulture and the more we learnt the more we wanted our winery dream.
We spent six years looking for the perfect block of land. We visited almost every wine region in Australia. One day my brother said to me, “Canberra has a great climate for viticulture.” My response was like that of many people “Canberra? What? Do they grow grapes in Canberra?”
We were instantly attracted to the region and in 1998 we found our first vineyard site and a way of escaping from the city.
The Brindabellas
This article has one comment.
“A great read & fantastic photos.
Grange at $5 does boggle the mind around this time of the year where the "cheap" release price is $495 and some have their fingers crossed that a certain large retailer will run it at $475 later down the track.
I never saw blue nun on the shelves but certain older relatives still get a chuckle from its mention.
-- James (May 3, 2010) ”