About

Following his school years, John spent time studying and working on the vineyards before being accepted into a new degree in Viticulture at LaTrobe University. The first year was offered in Mildura meaning John could continue to work on the vineyard after lectures and weekends, allowing him to not only put the theoretical knowledge into practice, but also develop a theoretical understanding of the practical applications he had learned from his forebears.

This degree led John to a work experience stint at Mitchelton Wines in Nagambie, central Victoria, a three-week period in mid 2001 that would inspire a passion for wine and interest in winemaking shaping the career path in a new and exciting direction.
The work experience opportunity then led to a cellarhand position for the 2002 vintage, followed by a fulltime position in the cellar after the vintage was completed, this did however mean that John’s degree in viticulture was left deferred just one assessment shy of graduation.

During the next few years, John developed an operational understanding of the winemaking process, with invaluable tuition from Mitchelton’s senior winemaker Don Lewis and winemaker Toby Barlow. Don, who also grew up in Sunraysia became a much respected mentor of John’s.
Don was a highly regarded member of the winemaking community producing some of the country’s best Rieslings and Rhone Valley wine styles.
During his time in the cellar, John developed a strong understanding of all operations and processes involved in producing both commercial and premium red and white wines. John’s childhood learning process was again followed, as he learned his craft in the cellar by watching, copying and questioning his Cellar Manager, Mark Clydesdale and senior cellar operators Simon Gribbin and Noel Welsh, all three of whom played an integral part of John’s development.

While working at Mitchelton, John’s quest for a theoretical understanding of what he was learning in the cellar led him to apply for enrolment in Charles Sturt University’s Wine Science degree. In 2005 his application was successful and he was admitted into the institution which offered a distance education enabling students to maintain full time employment while navigating study. At the same time, Mitchelton offered John an internship as a trainee winemaker, expanding his responsibilities to include oak barrel management and vintage nightshift supervision.

In June 2006, John moved interstate to South Australia to live with his now wife and company shareholder Lucy Richardson. After door knocking with his CV, he secured employment as Winemaker and Viticulturist for a family based wine company with vineyards in Clarendon, Finniss and the Riverland. It was here that John was able to implement what he had learned at Mitchelton and work under the leadership and direction of another respected mentor, world renowned winemaker, Chris Ringland, creating and crafting a range of red, white and sparkling wines that were predominantly sold throughout the USA, Canada, the UK and Asia.

It was this stage of John’s career that introduced him to the contract winemaking facility based on the outskirts of Langhorne Creek known as Belvidere Winery. Belvidere, through the generosity of Managing Director Mark Turnbull and the assistance of Paul Zeitz, Scott Quigley, the cellar staff and the lab team was to become a critical component in the production of Gledhill Vignerons first wine, the 2009 Gledhill Cabernet Sauvignon.

In late 2010, an opportunity arose for John to join the globally recognised brand, Rosemount Estate as a member of their winemaking team. Very much the junior winemaker, John’s learning curve in the corporate structure of Treasury Wine Estates was steep.
Guided by Matt Koch, Andrew Locke, Randall Cummins, Trevor Tucker and Priscilla Buckley, as well as very experienced cellar and lab teams, John slotted in seamlessly learning much and growing to love McLaren Vale as a region.
Over the next 4 years, the brand became the most highly awarded Australian brand in National and Regional wineshows across the country as well as the highly regarded International wine challenges. Rosemount won medals for over 80% of the wines they entered in these wine shows, including over 20% Gold medals, where the national average is 6% Gold.
Sadly, this golden era for Rosemount in McLaren Vale came to an abrupt halt in December 2014, when the brand owner made the decision to close the McLaren Vale winery, leaving all 33 full time staff redundant and looking for new jobs.
Fortunately for John, an internal opportunity to undertake the 2015 vintage at Penfolds in the Barossa Valley arose, so John jumped at the opportunity to be vintage/nightshift winemaker for one of the world’s most iconic wine brands. Early in the harvest, John frequented Penfolds vineyards and assisted in harvest grading and timing, before making the switch to managing nightshift winemaking responsibilities and built a strong rapport with not only the Penfolds winemaking team, but also worked very closely with the cellar and lab teams while there.

John’s love of fortified wines was further enhanced during this time as he was able to shadow the Penfolds fortified winemaking team of James Godfrey and Matt Woo, being involved in grading and classification tastings, operational decisions and protocols as well as final blending and bottling preparation of some of the grandest and oldest port wines Australia produces.

John then took up the position of Research Winemaker for WIC Winemaking Services in July 2015, which is a joint venture between the University of Adelaide and The Australian Wine Research Institute. Another steep learning curve ensued as John went from managing 50–100 tonne batches of fruit and wine, to 20–100kg parcels. He soon learned that there was just as much involved in small batch winemaking as commercial scale production, with one major point of difference, ‘there was nowhere to hide any mistakes’.

In this role, John has been at the forefront of viticultural and winegrape research, responsible for developing and implementing specific winemaking protocols to assist the research organisations maximise their outcomes and provide value back to industry.
John’s clients include both University of Adelaide and AWRI, as well as CSIRO, state Department of Agriculture bodies and some external commercial clients who have acknowledged the improvement in wine quality delivered and professionalism in the team he has built since John began in the role.