Fletcher Wines

David Fletcher has a background that would make any Florentine Renaissance man proud. While completing his oenology course at Adelaide University, he worked filling flagons and tending vines at Tinlins in McLaren Vale. On graduation in 2003, he worked for O'Leary Walker in the Clare Valley for two years; for reasons not entirely self-evident, this inspired him to work in Burgundy. In love with Pinot, he moved to the Yarra Valley at the start of '06, where he stayed for three years as assistant winemaker at Sticks, while fitting in a northern hemisphere vintage each year, once in Kazakhstan, and twice in Italy for Ceretto. In '09, he became a grape liaison officer with Foster's, with responsibilities extending across Vic and parts of NSW. This job then offered him the opportunity to fill the same role in the Napa Valley and Santa Barbara County for Beringer, part of Foster's. Agatha Christie might find the link that led David and wife Eleanor to establish Fletcher Wines, dedicated solely to making Nebbiolo from vines at least 10 years old. Exports to the UK, the US, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Italy. -JAMES HALLIDAY