When 21-year-old amateur photographer Max Marriott flew out of Brisbane headed for New Zealand, it was a career-defining moment. He fell in love with the place. Months later, he went back to explore its wine regions. That prompted Marriott to ditch his course in mechanical and aerospace engineering and stay on to study viticulture and oenology.
Richard Jones grew up on an historic farming property in the Jordan River Valley. Seven generations of Joneses had laboured there since the 1860s. But a life on the land wasn't for him. Beyond school, Jones spent more than a decade working interstate in oil, gas, and mining industries.
Having worked in construction for 40-odd years, project manager Clinton Mead knew establishing a topnotch vineyard would take time. He and partner Tanya Dalton waited more than a decade to find the site that met their exacting requirements. It's at Koonya, 15km and 200 years from the rugged landscape of former penal colony Port Arthur.
Cave Wines is a small, quality-driven wine producer based in southern Tasmania. Justin Folloso and Mexican-born Rosario Sanchez met on board ship in 2013 while working hospitality jobs for the Disney Cruise Line. Their many voyages together – and their shared curiosity for place, culture and wine – eventually led them both into winemaking.
Luck's a fortune. Even bad luck, sometimes. Peter Dredge was an emerging sports star in Adelaide when a wayward discus struck him in the head at an athletics event. The 17-year-old spent five months in hospital. It took even longer to recover from the mental trauma brought on by the loss of a potential career.
Bernard and Margaret Brain's Ouse River Wines is a substantial but remote cool climate vineyard on the couple's Rotherwood estate near Ouse in the Central Highlands. The mixed farming property has a celebrated history, dating back to early European settlement in the 1820s, adding heritage significance to the vineyard's distinctive terroir.
Rivulet Wines is the brainchild of 2023 Young Gun of Wine finalist, Keira O'Brien. Brought up in North East Victoria, O'Brien's early career moves led her on a merry dance through various property, retail and IT management roles before freelance writing and vintage experiences set her on a path into cool climate winemaking.
The historic Burnside property at Orielton had been a home to grazing and cropping for more than 150 years before six friends sat around a dinner table and decided it was time for a change. Time for Pinot Noir. Sticking closely to the notion that 'friends don't let friends do silly things alone,' all six prepared a north-facing site.
Born and raised in Tasmania, Luke Andree moved to Melbourne in anticipation of a career in professional sport or physiotherapy when he was bitten by the wine bug while working part-time in wine retailing. Formal study in wine science at Charles Sturt University then set Andree off on a new career path.
Cassie and Barry Kooij became the custodians of Unavale Vineyard on Flinders Island in 2021 after taking on leasehold arrangements from owners Roger and Bev Watson. The 3ha site is located at Lady Barron in the south of the island and was first planted in 1999.