Cobaw Ridge

After returning from an extended working holiday hitchhiking around Europe in 1979/80(Poland included) , Nelly and Alan decided it may be time to settle down, buy some land to try and self-build a home and start some sort of farming venture on the land. Alan is very much from the land, fifth generation farmer in Australia so it was not such a huge leap. They spent the first few years building their home so they could move from the city in 1984. During that time quite a number of different ideas were tossed around. The realities of a small land holding in a challenging climate dictated the end decision. Plus their Love of Wine.

Alan and Nelly knew at the time that there were a couple of vineyards / wineries locally, so after a fair bit of investigation they decided to plant some vines ! The thought process was really ‘How hard could it be ? If others could do it, well maybe they could too!). The first vines where planted in 1985.

They did not initially set up to make wine but after doing the numbers and thinking about the tiny amount of potential crop they would yield, it added up.

From day one the intention was to plant and manage the vineyard organically (if possible), but working close to full time in Melbourne to pay for everything, it was an insurmountable task to keep up with the rapid amount of growth of throughout the property including the weeds … So they relented ! During that

period the pair reverted to using herbicide, never pesticides, and when required fungicide sprays were the softest options.

Once the majority of the vineyard was well established they again started to think about organics Given that all the work in the vineyard was done by Nelly and Alan they did not want to be working in a chemical soup, all very logical! So they stared the change in 2005 / 2006. The addition of a larger tractor that was able to run an under vine cultivator was a great help. Vintage 2008 marked the “organic in conversion ” year followed by full certification organic in 2009.

The next stage of evolution, logically was to take the vineyard and winery into biodynamics with full certified Biodynamic status being achieved in 2011.

Now all of the wines are made “natural” with sulphur being the sole addition.

Since that first decision to build a winery, the pair have been constantly adding equipment and infrastructure so as to become

totally self-sufficient.

Now they have the final pieces in place including their own small bottling line.