Catherine Vale Vineyard

Wendy Lawson has taken over management of Catherine Vale Vineyard for the foreseeable future, after the death of Bill in Jan 2016. Bill taught at Knox Grammar School for 28 of his 36-year teaching career. After that, Bill and Wendy continued for 20 years in the Hunter Valley and the communities around Broke. This retirement venture is now 21yo with the lion's share of the vineyard planted to chardonnay and semillon, with smaller amounts of verdelho, arneis, dolcetto and barbera. The Lawsons planted the latter three varieties after visiting the Piedmont region in Italy, pioneering the move to these varieties in the Hunter. In '12 Wendy received an OAM for her work in tourism, the environment and viticulture. -JAMES HALLIDAY