Vignerons Schmölzer & Brown

Winemaker/viticulturist Tessa Brown graduated from CSU with a degree in viticulture in the late '90s and undertook postgraduate winemaking studies at the University of Adelaide in the mid-'00s. Her self-description of being ‘reasonably peripatetic’ covers her winemaking in Orange in ’99 and also in Canberra, SA, Strathbogie Ranges, Rioja and Central Otago before joining Kooyong and Port Phillip Estate in ’08. In ’09 Mark Walpole showed Tessa and architect partner Jeremy Schmölzer a property that he described as ‘the jewel in the crown of Beechworth’. When it came onto the market in ’12, they were in a position to jump. The property (named Thorley) was 20ha and cleared; they planted chardonnay, shiraz, riesling and nebbiolo. By sheer chance, just across the road was a tiny vineyard, a bit over 0.4ha, with dry-grown pinot and chardonnay around 20 years old. When they realised it was not being managed for production, they struck up a working relationship with the owners, getting the vineyard into shape and making their first (very good) Brunnen wines in ’14. The Obstgarten wines come from a small, high-altitude riesling vineyard in the King Valley. -JAMES HALLIDAY