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“Gill Gordon Smith is an ex Qantas flight attendant, who fell in love with wine. Now she has her own wine label, Fall From Grace, which she sells from a cellar door that doubles up as a wine bar/retail shop, based in Aldinga, McLaren Vale. Gill also does wine education here. She works quite naturally, and I really like the wines”. Jamie Goode.

She’s been using some clay pots for the last five years for fermenting and ageing some of the wines. They are 300 litres capacity. Some grape varieties work in them, some don’t apparently. Montepulciano is good in amphora but Carignan isn’t.

"It was always going to be Italian varieties for Fall From Grace. McLaren Vale has always been my home, a place we have journeyed from, time and time again yet always returning. Italy feels like home, a big hug, the pace we enjoy, the things we value- friends, family, wines with texture, and drinkability. Italian varieties work here, give us wines with great natural acidity, beautiful flavours, savoury layers and honesty. We make village wines, that are meant to be shared and enjoyed with food and friends, using traditional techniques alongside clay pots, skin contact and minimal intervention-following the currants and expressing the vineyard. Every vintage we learn something more about the varieties we use, each vintage another layer is peeled back and our wines evolve." Gill Gordon Smith.

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One is a farmer, the other a musician, Andrew and Louise, a husband and wife team who moved back to Mount Gambier (Andrew’s childhood town) to start a family and a wine label.

“We wanted to grip the earth with our toes and use our knowledge in organic farming and permaculture to create our own wine label. We wanted to create a community where we could be proud to raise our daughter Frankie. Our dream is to inspire home grown eating, drinking and music that nourishes the land and reflects our personalities and to share it with the community.​

We lease three vineyards and are planning the planting of two more on our farm which is located on the outskirts of Mt Gambier, SA. Our property and all our leased vineyards are located on the south side of one of Australia’s youngest volcanos. Erupting less than 6000 years ago it is filled with water that changes colour with the seasons. Arising from an ancient inland sea made into limestone and now receiving water from underground caves added with our generous rainfall all contributes to the abundance of water stored in underground limestone caves with pockets of flint rock spread below the nearby soils. The limestone filters the water naturally and the result is a pure water thriving with minerality. All this helps make for incredible soil complexity and our cool climate makes for perfect growing conditions and in turn beautiful, elegant and totally unique wines like no other.​

We make wines that reflect the eccentricities of our personalities, place and terroir with a minimalistic approach. We use old world wine methods, preferring the challenges of hand picking our fruit, open fermenting with indigenous yeast and only adding sulphur when required by the wine. We do not filter or fine our wines and they are all bottled on site in our small winery. Our aim is to produce great tasting unique wines expressing this unique terroir above anything else. We produce what we like to drink.”

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Brad Moyes and Kendall Grey established their award-winning vineyard and winery in the heart of McLaren Vale in 2018. Along with their children, they are the proud custodians of this very special vineyard- Orbis wines is breaking new ground adapting to climate and environmental challenges, while taking a collaborative approach working with many experts in the region.

Winemaker Lauren Langfield’s approach to wine has always been vineyard first, with a deep focus on organic and biodynamic viticulture taking her from New Zealand to Gippsland, then the Adelaide Hills, and now to McLaren Vale, where she has been appointed winemaker for Orbis, an operation built on sustainability at all levels.