Sitting from 600m to over 1000m above sea level, the Orange wine region in New South Wales is Australia’s highest vineyard area, giving it a cool climate year-round with cold, snowy winters.
Located about three hours west of Sydney, Orange is dominated by the now extinct volcano Mount Canabolas, which provides a unique combination of geology and soils.
Until the 1980s, this cool climate region lay dormant. Vines had been planted a hundred years earlier, but things were slow to take off – until one high-profile winemaker lit the spark and the wine scene exploded. The region is now home to more than 60 wineries, top winemaking talent and world-class wines.
Hear from winemakers Damian Shaw (Philip Shaw Wines), Peter Robson (Ross Hill Wines) and Ben Crossing (Angullong Wines) and find out why Orange is the new black in the world of Australian wine. The winemakers will take you round this cool climate hotspot and they’ll reveal why it’s such an exciting time for the region.
In a conversation with Bert Blaize, New South Wales Wine Ambassador in the UK, the winemakers will discuss how the near-perfect balance of elevation and sunshine results in fresh, vibrant wines. The producers will introduce you to the region’s signature styles and they’ll also share some of the challenges that come with making wine at altitude.
The winemakers will be discussing these wines:
- Philip Shaw The Architect Chardonnay 2021
- Ross Hill Pinnacle Series Chardonnay 2019
- Philip Shaw No.8 Pinot Noir 2019
- Angullong Crossing Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2018
- Ross Hill Family Series Jacks Lot Shiraz 2019
- Angullong Crossing Reserve Shiraz 2017
Featured presenters
Bert Blaize
Bert Blaize is an independent sommelier previously of the Clove Club - UK’s top-ranked restaurant in ‘World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ for three years running and 26th best restaurant in the world. In 2019 Bert won the UK’s Top Young Sommelier competition sponsored by Flint wines. He was nominated by GQ Magazine and Imbibe Magazine as ‘Sommelier of the year’ and was named among the top 50 most influential people in the wine industry by Drinks Business. In 2020 he published his first book with Penguin, ‘Which Wine When’. It was shortlisted for Drinks book of the year.
Peter Robson
In 1994, when Peter and Terri Robson purchased a property on Griffin Road in Orange, the Ross Hill Wines story began. At that time there were only a few other vineyards in Orange, and it didn’t take long for another one to be planted!
Twelve years later, their son James and his wife Chrissy moved to Orange to bring up their young family and join the family business. James and Chrissy have taken over the reins of the day-to-day running of the winery business, with Peter still very much hands-on.
In 2008, the Wallace Lane Winery was established in an old apple packing shed on Mount Canobolas. The existing four temperature controlled rooms, which previously stored fruit and juice, provided the ideal spaces to turn into barrel and wine storage rooms. The winery also had ample space for the custom-designed equipment and technology best suited for premium wine making methods. Hard work, passion and dedication continue to be the key themes of Ross Hill, with the end goal remaining to produce exceptional quality and elegantly refined, cool-climate wines.
Ross Hill was the First Certified Carbon Neutral Winery certified by the Australian Government in 2015.
Damian Shaw
As a child Damian had the Murray River on one side and the biggest winery in the Southern Hemisphere on the other side of the house. During his holidays he was dragged from vineyard to winery to restaurant in many of the great wine regions of the world. This was the beginning of his journey and ultimately a new career that began with a simple phone call from Philip in late 2003, “Let’s do it”.
Through the years of boarding school at Armidale (TAS), the holidays were spent working as a cellar-rat. Many considered this a privileged position but being the winemaker’s son, there were occasions when it was sport for the others in the cellar. By the time he’d left university with a Bachelor of Economics, he’d had 12 years working in wineries and vineyards.
A natural course would have been to move into the wine industry after university. But armed with an Economics degree he moved to Sydney and started a job as an Analyst with Qantas Airways. Which eventually lead to a senior management role managing the Sales & Marketing for USA, South America and the Pacific. This invaluable experience taught him the discipline of large corporate company, managing a business across many different countries and being involved in a corporation going through massive change.
The enormous leap from flying First Class and a billion dollar budget to a small family
wine business was taken with huge anticipation in 2006. After planting Koomooloo Vineyard, in 1988/89. Damian and Philip joined to build a winery and Philip Shaw Wines with the harvest of 2004. In August 2005, Philip Shaw Wines was launched with four wines at a memorable lunch at Rockpool, Sydney.
Damian’s opportunity is not only building a new family business in a challenging industry
but also helping build a new wine region (Orange). He believes the region has the right
attributes to deliver on the expectations.
Ben Crossing
Ben Crossing is a second-generation winegrower. Prior to returning to the family’s historic Angullong Station, Ben studied at the University of New England and worked in Sydney with Price Waterhouse and then Michael Boyce & Co Chartered Accountants.
Upon returning to Angullong in 2002 Ben took up the role of General Manager where he focused his energies on building the Angullong Brand. This included opening domestic and international markets along with establishing the brand’s bluestone cellar door in the heart
Millthorpe.
Ben has been instrumental in the development of emerging varieties in the region, along with more traditional varieties. This has been evident with the brand’s success. The 2009 Angullong Sauvignon Blanc was awarded the prestigious Bert Bear Memorial Trophy for the Best Young White Wine of the Show at the 2009 Macquarie Bank Sydney Royal Wine Show; a first for an Orange region Sauvignon Blanc.
The Angullong ‘Fossil Hill’ Tempranillo was the first of this variety released from Orange, along with Barbera, Sangiovese, Vermentino and Sagrantino. These varieties continue to develop in the region, with Angullong also selling a substantial tonnage of grapes to likeminded
winemakers.