Sons & Brothers

Chris and Kathryn Bourke do not pull their punches when they say, ‘Our vineyard has had a chequered history, because in 1978 we were trying to establish ourselves in a non-existent wine region with no local knowledge and limited personal knowledge of grapegrowing and winemaking. It took us about 15 years of hit and miss before we started producing regular supplies of appropriate grape varieties at appropriate ripeness levels for sales to other NSW wineries.' Chris has published two fascinating papers on the origins of savagnin in Europe; he has also traced its movements in Australia after it was one of the varieties collected by James Busby - and moved just in time to save the last plantings of Busby's importation in NSW. The 2018 Cabernet is the last made, Chris retired from winemaking at the age of 70 in '19. -JAMES HALLIDAY