Our Philosophy

When we were in our 3rd year of our winemaking degrees we both read “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert Pirsig and loved the character Phaedrus’ quest to define “Quality”.

Phaedrus’ willingness to challenge the accepted tenets of the academic world and efforts to bridge the divide between Art and Science inspired us then as they do today.

We approach each aspect of the vineyard and winery with an open mind and a holistic approach but we question everything even if it has already been “proven”. The great thing about working with a living system is that there are no absolute right or wrong…what might work well in a vineyard over the hill on volcanic soil might not work well in our sandy-loam vineyard…

We do not claim to be Biodynamic or Organic growers but some of what these movements have to say is useful…..some of it is utter rubbish too! We respect the plants and the soil and everything we do has to be sustainable in the long run.

In the winery the main aim is to make beautiful wines as simply as possible. Some of the cult “natural” winemakers today seem intent on doing things differently just to be different and unfortunately it’s the wine quality that suffers……but what is a “quality wine” you might ask? You’d have to discuss that with Phaedrus……