Our Story
Bannockburn Vineyards' commitment to quality drives everything we do, from the vineyard to the bottle. Stuart Hooper was a successful businessman with a passion for all things wine. He envisioned planting a vineyard that would produce Australian wine of a quality comparable to the great regions of France.
In the early 1970s, Stuart selected a plot of land in the Moorabool Valley near the township of Bannockburn. It was a promising site with desirable soil composition, ideal for quality viticulture, and a rich history of premium wine grape production dating back to the 1870s. The initial plantings were Shiraz vines. Before long, more land was acquired, and more vines and varieties were planted—the story had begun.
A major contribution to Bannockburn Vineyards' success was the strong foundation Stuart provided through his purist, uncompromising approach in establishing the vineyard and winery. Everything was done with a steadfast commitment to producing quality wine.
Although Stuart has since passed, Bannockburn Vineyards remains in the Hooper family, with his daughters as custodians, ensuring his philosophy is preserved. This provides the cornerstone of everything we do at Bannockburn today.
We continue to benefit from the foresight Stuart Hooper showed. In the 1970s and 1980s, when the Australian wine industry focused on Bordeaux as a reference point, Stuart planted Burgundian varieties. Our Serré vineyard is now home to Australia's oldest close-planted Pinot Noir vines, and our Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vines are among the oldest in the region.
Like our founder, we strive to express the vineyard through the wines we produce, telling a deeper story of soil and site.
The Winery
In the winery, Matt Holmes' approach is to take a step back and allow the vineyard to speak. Starting with healthy, well-balanced fruit, the goal is to guide the fruit through vinification into wines with a sense of place.
Matt commenced making the wines at Bannockburn Vineyards in 2015. He sees his role as a servant to the vineyard, the growing season and the fruit, and to produce wines which represent our site and our style. Above all, gentle handling, careful decision making and minimal inputs are the goal.
The Vineyard
Viticultural Manager for over 37 years, Lucas Grigsby takes great personal pride tending to the vineyards. A Bannockburn local for his adult life, he knows this land better than most ever will. He has a firm belief in organic farming practices to maintain the health of the soils and vines.
Viticultural principles are based on healthy respect for the land and responsible farming such as the use of organic composting and straw mulching to eliminate need for herbicide sprays and the cultivation of inter-row cover crops to add soil nutrients.
