The bold explorations of Victoria’s next-generation winemakers

In Victoria, Australia, a new generation of talented winemakers is boldly re-evaluating the state’s key wine regions. With the aim of capturing more refined expressions from specific vineyards, they are introducing exciting twists to classic wine styles – producing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay of great finesse – and previously unheralded grape varieties across Victoria, from Sangiovese in Heathcote, to Tempranillo in Beechworth.

Pushing boundaries

Tillie Johnston personifies this development. Having developed her winemaking craft at large Australian wineries and working vintages overseas, Tillie is now presenting wines of excellence with her own Tillie J brand, based in the Yarra Valley.

Having launched her eponymous label in 2019, Tillie now tends her own block of Pinot Noir vines in the Gruyere sub-region. Employing sustainable viticulture to revitalise soil health, she has focused intently on what’s best for the vineyard to extract the best and most pure wine expressions.

‘I’m applying what I’ve learned to cultivating and improving this site, and that informs the decisions about what I do in the winery,’ explains Tillie, pointing to her vine pruning regime that supports her bright and lively, fruit-driven interpretation of Pinot Noir.

She is also not bound exclusively to her own vineyard, casting her gaze across Australia to find pockets of exceptional grapes from other superior sites. This includes an elegant Yarra Valley Chardonnay and has led her to make a spicy 2023 Aligoté from King Valley too.

‘Boundaries are there to be pushed,’ she explains. ‘It would seem remiss of me to not put into practise all the skills I’ve learned from doing vintages in many places around the world. Exploring new ideas is so enriching.’

Reading the land

Ocean Eight winemaker Mike Aylward pursues similar goals, looking to produce wines that best represent the climate and grape growing conditions in Mornington Peninsula. Over the past decade, he has revised his family’s vineyard in this cool maritime region of Victoria, reading the terroir carefully to get the best out of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris grown on two separate sites. The way he has re-assessed vineyard management in the Mornington Peninsula, and the subsequent surge in Ocean Eight wine quality, has been transformative.

‘We’ve made adjustments to best suit each site,’ says Mike, pointing to his decisions in adopting different soil management techniques, pruning and trellising, and even grafting different clones on parts of each vineyard to ensure the best examples of each grape variety.

‘You need to put time into a site to understand what’s working and what isn’t. If you’re on the wrong site, you’re just battling the elements. You must read your site carefully, and tweak it to make it the best it can possibly be. And sometimes those tweaks have to be substantial to achieve excellence.’

‘For a young region – the oldest vines in the Mornington Peninsula would only be about 60 years old – we’re still on a journey trying to identify the very best sites within the region, and how to get the very best out of them.’

Italian legacy

Young winemaker Madeleine Marson at Vinea Marson in the warmer inland region of Heathcote is thriving – and obviously benefits through learning from experts. For 17 years, her father Mario was winemaker and viticulturalist at the renowned Mount Mary Winery in the Yarra Valley, and now Madeleine works at his shoulder to nurture a holistic approach to winemaking and viticulture at Vinea Marson.

With her Italian heritage, Madeleine is especially passionate about sustainability and growing Italian varieties in a changing climate, presenting especially strong examples of Sangiovese and Nebbiolo, plus some lively Barbera and Prosecco. These vivacious wines, each with an edgy energy and bright personality, stand as benchmarks of what is possible with Italian grape varieties in Heathcote.

Spanish alternatives

Many emerging winemakers are developing exciting visions for alternative wines, from the ground up. In Beechworth, which sits just above Victoria’s alpine national park, Raquel Jones and her husband Hugh purchased the Weathercraft vineyard specifically because of its potential to grow outstanding Tempranillo. Then, they carefully sourced and grafted three clones from the Ribera del Duero region onto existing rootstock.

Weathercraft now produces a gorgeous Joven style – lean, nuanced, feisty and seductive on the palate, that Raquel playfully describes as an ‘interesting alternative to Pinot Noir’ – and a Reserve Tempranillo that takes a radically different line with studied oak maturation that was issued for the first time in 2023. ‘Making new ideas come to fruition – that’s the most exciting thing about making wine,’ says Raquel.

Three wines to try from some of Victoria’s up and coming producers

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