In 1977 my parents moved to Mount Barker, part of the Great Southern, Western Australia and bought a property where they were going to plant a vineyard and raise a family, giving up their high profile careers in the computer industry and their life style in the city.They wanted to raise their children in the country and hence became pioneers in the wine industry of Western Australia.

In 1978 I was born and I began my life as part of the wine Industry.  My mother planted the vineyard when I was a baby. She would start early, packing up my things and a little picnic lunch.We had a big black Mary Poppins style pram that she’d put me in. I’d be in the pram with the cuttings and she’d push me along the rows and plant the cuttings as we went. We’d stop for a picnic lunch between the newly planted rows.

As I got older I’d walk along with my mother in the vineyard while she’d tied the vines to the trellis. My job would be to take off the new shoots of the bottom of the vines.I have vivid memories of playing with the trellis wires, playing games and talking with my mother while she worked and of course stop for lunch, among the vines. The smell of the dirt and the coolest of the breeze floating through the green leaves of the vines.   

 

 

 

My father made a makeshift open tank on a trailer to water the vines. This is before the days of irrigation. Sitting on my father’s lap on the tractor, we pull the trailer along and water the vines to keep them growing. My job was to enjoy the water in the tank. When the water got to a low level, I’d be put in this open tank and splash around having a great time while my parents were busy hand watering   the vines. It wasn’t long before I’d join the‘girl’s’ hand picking the grapes. They all love me and would talk and spoil me with lots of attention while picking the grapes for harvest.

Before long we had our own winery. I remember my father often yelling at us kids ‘this is a winery not a playground! Play outside!” We loved it in the winery. The pallet trolley was constant amusement of riding on while someone pushed. I was the king of hide and seek. We had all these old apple bins we’d pack wine into. When they were empty they were stacked high. I’d climb up them and lie down inside. No one would find me there.

I remember one year having a Christmas party BBQ with the local growers. This year we had a bad plague of locus. Each child was given an empty wine bottle and we’d go and collect locus and put as many as we could in a bottle and put the cork in on top. It keeps us well amused for hours. At another winemaker’s BBQ the kids were encourage to take their cricket bats out into the vineyard and bash all the thistles. A great exercise to keep us amused and the weeds under control.

My first accident in the winery was playing chasey with some kids. I was running and looking behind me as a kid chased me. Before I knew it, I turn around and ran smack into a barrel. The steel rim of the barrel cut above my lip and I still carry the scar of two stitches.

As I grew into my teenage years my love for the winery was not so amicable. I was often asking to help pick grapes and help as a cellar hand during vintage. I would bitterly complain and protest.  I was always asking to help at bottling time which I didn’t mind. However some days the bottling line wouldn’t work. My father would be there trying to fix it while all us staff would be patiently waiting. Then he would get to a stage and call the whole thing off. I’d jump with joy and run back to the house and turn the telly on. What can I say…I was a teenager! Now that it’s my job to run the bottling wine I feel sorry for those times. It is very frustrating when the bottle line decides to be temperamental.

During vintage my favourite job would be plunging the red grapes in the red fermenters. It was fun and I was good at it. It involved plunging the cap down into the moisture of the red grape juice. It required balance and strength. The boys in the winery would all tease me saying…’we’ll build that muscle up yet!”

I went to all the festival,tasting events and trips selling wine. Obviously I wasn’t allow to sell any wine because I was under 18 but I was there, watching, learning, a part of it all.  I was fifteen when I began to help MC at our annual wine dinner in Perth.  As soon as I turned 18 I was push to the front and began to sell wine. It came quite naturally after all those years of being behind the scenes.

Unfortunately in 2003,my father past away. He was such a big part of my life. So I returned home and began working in the family business.Luckily so many of those things I did as a kid stayed with me and I was able to help run the family winery and vineyard. In 2007, I had my wedding ceremony in the vineyard and the wedding reception amongst the barrels. And it only seems natural that now it is me and my own family back on the vineyard, working amongst the vines.

These were the experiences that shaped my life and fill me with a sense of pride. I learnt very quickly that you can make great wine from great grapes. And that working hard is about getting in there and getting the job done at a high standard.  There is no greater satisfaction of working hard and creating something as complicated as wine from something   as simple as a grape.