Black & Ginger pays tribute to Lily with a premium shiraz

Out on one of our motorcycle road trips we always come across interesting winemakers with their own unique stories, reports two-wheeling correspondent Rod Eime. 

Hadyn Black at Black & Ginger in Victoria's Grampians region is just one such character.

Along with wife Lucy and business partner Darcy "Ginger" Naunton, the trio kicked off in 2015 with the purchase of a tonne of shiraz grapes from the Pyrenees, while their own vineyard took shape.

"We started B&G in 2015, with that single tonne of shiraz. At the end of 2016, we bought a rundown vineyard with a rundown house on it," Hadyn tells us as we sit in his rustic wine shed just off the main road and grafted onto Barney’s Bar & Bistro.

But that's just a hint at the real story.

"My mum Lily had recently retired, and so she spent as much time up here as she could, doing everything from helping me clean up the house, strip the horrible wallpaper, repaint, and clean up the garden. Then we’d get stuck into pruning and fixing the vineyard," Hadyn tells us. I can see his throat is getting a bit lumpy. "We managed to only properly prune a couple of rows at the top of the vineyard. We picked our grapes in 2017; most were sold, but we kept all the fruit from the rows Mum helped properly prune for ourselves. 

"Mum and Lucy and a couple of our mates helped pick it, and the fruit was fantastic. It was fermenting away nicely in the winery when I got a call that Mum had very suddenly passed away. So we named the resulting wine 'Lily’s Block' in her honour. We only release the wine under her name when it is good enough, so it is not made every year. The label is pink, an obvious choice given her favourite colour was pink, I also added her signature to the side label."

Lily and Hadyn

As well as Lily's Block, the small-batch wines have been well received, getting some great scores from wine writers and a couple of medals at wine shows.

Find the BLACK & GINGER WINE SHED at:
3447a Ararat-Halls Gap Road, Pomonal, Victoria, 3381

So you'd like to enter the Australian wine industry?

Many people dream of starting a vineyard and making their own wine.

A lot more realistic option is buying an existing vineyard, winery and house - the complete package in one hit.

One such business recently hit the market: ATR Wines in the Grampians region of Victoria.

Winemaker Adam Richardson and journalist Eva Dienel are selling their business to return to Oregon in the US, where Adam met Eva when making wine some years back.

"After buying an empty sheep paddock in 2005, planting the vineyard, building the winery, developing and running the ATR Wines business and tasting room, Adam is ready to retire from winemaking," Eva said in an email to friends and business associates.

The family will move to live in Bend, Oregon, where Eva's parents are based.

So if county vineyard life sounds your thing, here are some links with all the details you might need.

• Real estate listings:  https://www.realestate.com.au/property-lifestyle-vic-armstrong-700231588 and https://www.realcommercial.com.au/for-sale/property-armstrong-vic-3377-504277644. 
• ATR Wines: with information about the business: https://www.atrwines.com.au/. 
• Visit Grampians website for more information about the region: https://www.visitgrampians.com.au/. 

The property covers 43 acres with 18 acres of vines planted to shiraz, riesling, nebbiolo, durif, tannat and viognier.

The location is a 2 1/2-hour train ride or drive from Melbourne.