THE STORY Mammoth Wines

My wine story probably started with the planting of my parent’s vineyard in Nelson, New Zealand more than thirty years ago when i was about 15.

Pushing sticks into the ground didn’t seem very significant at the time, but in watching the vines grow and eventually produce fruit some four years later, I began to feel something special that led to my own adventure and journey into the world of wine.

I left New Zealand in 1993 and came to Australia to complete my wine science degree at CSU in Wagga Wagga and upon completion in 1997 I was every bit a product of the Australian system.

I was employed in the Hunter Valley at both The Rothbury Estate and at Oakvale before heading south to Tasmania and a winemaking job at Moorilla Estate in 2000. It was during my 5 years at Moorilla that I began working overseas harvests and was exposed to winemaking styles and philosophies that made me realise how narrow and blinkered my New World view was.

It was in 2005 that I left Tasmania and...