A Fine Blend: Wine, Business and Family

It takes a lot to make great wine. It also takes a lot to successfully run a business and a happy family. So, what about when all three things are put together? We chat to three wineries in Victoria's north east that are managing to nail all three. Here are a few stories from their journey through wine, family, tradition and hard work.

Brown Brothers Winery – Stories and Shiraz

An old lady is fussing about in her kitchen, many moons ago. She takes four teacups and places them in the oven, just until they are too hot to touch. She takes them carefully out of the oven and places them on the table, next to a steaming hot pot of tea. In walk four of her sons. They take a chair at the kitchen table as their mother pours them a cup of tea in the scorching cups. The cups are too hot to touch. They stay that way for a while. The boys linger, telling storing, sharing tales of the family business — tales of the winery. The woman is happy. Her plan to keep them there long enough for their tea to be drinkable is working. The hotter it is, the longer they stayed. A brilliant plan.

She is the mother of the Brown brothers and grandmother to Katherine and Caroline — the fourth generation of Browns and the next to take over the reigns of the well-known Brown Brothers family winery.

Now picture this: three young, beautiful and driven Brown daughters are sent off into the big bad world. They must complete the non-negotiable task of working outside the family business for four years before being allowed to work within the winery. A beautiful clause, it encourages hard work and avoids entitlement.  And it's worked. The daughters ooze with appreciation of the business and a keenness to continue the legacy.

Brown Brothers have just relabeled their 18 Eighty Nine range, each fit with a different chair from their family table and a different tale of the family. This dry range includes a fruity Chardonnay, a Shiraz made in Heathcote and a savoury Cabernet Sauvignon.

239 Milawa Bobinawarrah Road, Milawa VIC 3678, brownbrothers.com.au

Dal Zotto Wines – Practice and Prosecco

Otto, Eleanor, Christian and Michael Dal Zotto are sitting around the large table in their trattoria in King Valley. While Italian voices are coming from one end and Australian accents from the other, there is no denying they are related. Mother, father and two sons.

As the kitchen serves up divine, simple, sharing style Italian cooking, the wine begins to pour. A Prosecco to begin, of course. The two wine glasses in front of each person are instantly filled. Then the gentle bickering begins. Where are the rest of the wine glasses? After all, it is only right that each guest have the opportunity to taste all the wines on the table at once.

After lunch, stuffed to the brim, they take their guests outside for a throw of the bocce ball, a run with the two dogs in the kitchen garden and to play with the many grandchildren that live just next door.

What began as Otto and Eleanor's business — pioneering Prosecco in Australia — is now strongly ingrained in the lives of their children. Michael takes the reigns as the winemaker while Christian looks after the marketing. Spend an afternoon in their trattoria with them if you get the opportunity. The passion is tangible.

4861 Wangaratta-Whitfield Road, Whitfield VIC 3733, dalzotto.com.au

Pizzini – Community and Chardonnay

Roberto and Rose Pizzini, along with their three children migrated from the Northern Italian Alps to Australia back in 1955. Lost for what to do, digging potatoes became their bread and butter. This later turned into tobacco growing. None of these felt quite right to the Pizzinis. It was only when Brown Brothers planted their first grapes in the King Valley in 1978 that the Pizzini family began farming grapes. A collection of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec and Shiraz were farmed by Alfred and Katrina and sold to different winemaking companies around Australia.

Over the next twenty years Alfred Pizzini began trying his hand at two relatively unknown Northern Italian red grape varieties — Nebbiolo and Sangiovese — and later the white Italian varietals Verduzzo, Picolit and Arneis.

It was only in 1994 that Alfred and Katrina Pizzini began the Pizzini label with their signature chardonnay. As they began to build their business they realised they needed to help build up the local area as well. After a cellar door was created from tobacco drying kilns, the Pizzini's invested in three local hospitality venues around town. A little restaurant in Oxley, the Mountain View Hotel in Whitfield and finally they renovated a cottage on the property and turned it into a self-contained B&B.

Fast forward to today, Katrina Pizzini running a thriving cooking school, the winery is one of the biggest in the area and the King Valley is never short of wine enthusiasts. The winemaking is now in the capable hands of their son Joel.

175 King Valley Rd, Whitfield VIC 3733, pizzini.com.au