2021

We were all wearing many hats at the start of the 2021 vintage - Mel, a brilliant student was in her third year of Viticulture and Oenology at The University of Adelaide, working for Commune of Buttons, Son of Dot Drinks and a mother to be. Sarah was running The Summertown Aristologist and working with Les Fruits. And Joss, balancing 4 simultaneous jobs and a vintage at Gentle Folk. Needless to say we needed one another to get things done and swift decision making became our forte. Finding time in our already overcomplicated schedules, we made wine and managed to do it with finesse. For the last year we have been continuously bouncing off one another, discussing and seeking solutions to obstacles and finding consonance in our decisions. We suppose in essence, we are one big Parley.

In our first vintage, we committed to 10 tonnes of fruit from four varieties, sourced from a new vineyard under organic management by Fiona Wood in McLaren Vale, as well as a small Bordeaux varietal vineyard we managed ourselves in Basket Range. From this allotment, we crafted 8 cuvées to form our inaugural range. Working out of a three-car garage in Forest Range, in the Adelaide Hills, with a handful of tanks and barrels, a basket press, and a hand de-stemmer on loan, plus a well-worn forklift from the man down the road, we meticulously crafted our wines with an incredible attention to detail—juggling it all between jobs, children, and the demands of everyday life.

Our first release was in December 2021, still amid the pandemic. Sarah was waiting at home for the green light to attend our launch party, having just flown into Adelaide from Sydney. At the eleventh hour, the approval came through, and we were able to celebrate our hard work at LOC, surrounded by friends and family.

2022

It was a huge year for each of us. Mel, who was very pregnant during the previous vintage, welcomed little Billie into the world in May 2021. We entered vintage 2022 with an extra little lady in tow, and having a tiny human being passed around the winery helped soften the intensity of the season.

Sarah moved to Sydney at the end of 2021 to be closer to her partner, Tim from Les Fruits. While it was a tough decision to leave her Hills friends and home, being in Sydney has strengthened our connection with our East Coast customers.

Joss, the green thumb of the partnership, leaned into her passion even further. She spent the pruning season working with Manon and focused on developing the vines in our own Basket Range Vineyard—removing clumping grasses, clearing diseased vines, and hard-pruning the struggling plants.

We decided to double our production for 2022, committing to 20 tonnes of fruit from vineyards across the Adelaide Hills and Langhorne Creek. Still working out of our three-car garage, with only a borrowed basket press for processing reds, we spent our evenings hauling fruit to our friends' wineries to press our whites after they'd finished for the day. Our days began at 5 a.m. in the vineyards, picking and sorting over the bins. In the afternoons, we’d transport the fruit to our mates place, waiting patiently for them to finish their work before setting up to press around 9 p.m. Our days usually wrapped up at 2 a.m., after thoroughly cleaning the press in the dark with headlamps.

2022 was a cool year, with temperatures dropping dramatically after harvest. Keeping the winery warm and consistent proved to be a challenge. We were definitely on the lookout for a bigger and better space.

2023

A milestone vintage. We moved into our new home—an old apple storage shed on the same property—offering more space, thick walls, and high ceilings. With physical space came mental space, and having room to move allowed us to dedicate more time to the wine. We set up a lab for analysis, a temperature-controlled room for fermentation, a barrel hall carved into the hill for élevage, and a kitchenette for the occasional catch-up (though infrequent).

We also increased our production to 30 tonnes, branching out to McLaren Vale again and, for the first time, working with a couple of vineyards in the Coonawarra. Though it's a bit of a hike, the GWB Chardonnay vineyards—growing the Gin Gin clone—have proven worth the 10-hour return trip. This new vineyard is the source of our “Capitaine”, a rich and textured barrel-fermented Chardonnay with incredible concentration.