clog: March members' promotion: Baddaginnie Run Wines

Our members promotion for this month is kindly supported by Baddaginnie Run Wines, suppliers and purveyors of fine wine proudly made in Victoria.

Located in the Strathbogie Ranges, Baddaginnie Run is a family-owned boutique winery, using innovative and environmentally sensitive viticulture methods with grapes grown on the Seven Sisters Vineyard... and if you've been to one of our recent exhibition openings, you may have already tasted one of Baddaginnie's fine wines!

For this month's promotion, Baddaginnie is giving away five boutique wine gift packs to five lucky people who take out a Craft Victoria membership this month! The prize pack consists of two bottles of wine and if you are one of the lucky vino-winners, you can collect your prize from Craft Victoria.

Introducing you to Baddaginnie Run today are Directors Winsome McCaughey and Snow Barlow, both of whom have extensive backgrounds in the field (and you can read more about them here). Don't forget that you can enjoy Baddaginnie Run wine at our next opening which is happening next week on Thursday 10 March from 6-8pm.

What is your background in food and wine and how have you seen the industry change in the last ten years?

Both Winsome [McCaughey] and Snow [Barlow] have had lifetime associations with food and wine, Snow as Professor of Horticulture and Viticulture as well as the former Head of the School of Agriculture and Food Systems at the University of Melbourne and Winsome growing up on a farm with first hand knowledge as a primary producer.

Some of the changes we have seen in the Industry include a customer shift to small, boutique producers and the support of Farmers Markets. Customers want to know where their food and wine comes from and are interested in the direct link between the producer/grower to their shopping baskets and tables.

(You can find Baddaginnie Run and many others amazing growers and producers at Gasworks Farmers Market on the third Saturday of every month - the next one is on Saturday 19 March from 8.30am to 1pm!)

Winemaking is a craft in itself, what do you (and Baddaginnie) enjoy the most about the process?

Winsome has been closely involved in both the arts and the wine industry for many years and sees many similarities between the creativity and determination involved in the ancient art of fine winemaking and the crafts as we know them today:

"The creative process, whether it be crafting a beautiful piece of jewellery or a making a fine wine, requires intense focus, even to the point of obsession. Winemakers and crafts people both use their imagination, both experiment, push boundaries and continuously re-evaluate their work, as they strive to achieve a particular balance, expression or effect."

Winsome thinks the late Max Schubert, creator of Grange Hermitage, summed it up when he said:

"Good winemakers must possess a fertile imagination to be successful in their craft. To make great wine then winemakers, like artists, must be willing to... give some of their personality to their wine... it is part and parcel of the wine itself. The greatest wines have implanted in them the ideas of the winemaker... their character is part of the wine."

What does 'terroir' mean and how does it affect the taste and qualities of the wine?

The quality of Baddaginnie Run wines arise from our terroir... a term used by the French for aeons to describe the combination of natural elements - soils, climate, altitude, slope, with the cultural values and practices of the people of a particular place.

For us there’s also a cultural and spiritual dimension to terroir. Love of land and family, instilled in us by our ancestors underpins much of what we do today. Irrespective of where family members now live and work, generations and branches of the family, together with friends, come back to share this sense of belonging to place, and to help with the planting of the indigenous wildlife corridors and farm-forestry shelter belts that today criss-cross the valley.

These green networks now support biodiversity, provide shade and shelter for stock, help prevent rising saline water tables and make the Vineyard not just carbon neutral, but in carbon credit! Our aim is to grow premium quality grapes and create a natural harmony between vines and country.

Baddaginnie Run is a family-owned winery, how long have the family been on the land and involved in wine making?

Although the vineyard was established in 1996, the family has been associated with this land for over 140 years. The vineyard is truly a family affair with many members involved in wine making, harvesting, marketing, tree planting and restoration.

Tell us a bit more about the history of the Strathbogie Ranges ( ...we hear it was where the Kelly gang roamed).

The Strathbogie Ranges is a beautiful ancient, granite massif less than two hours north of Melbourne. The ranges are 400 million years old and emanate a sense of timeless mystery with dramatic granite outcrops, steep gullies, high plateaus, hidden waterfalls, majestic vistas, magical forests and ferny glades.

The Strathbogie Ranges was originally the land of the Taungurong people and last century to the Kelly gang. Ned spent his formative years in Avenel where and earned his famous green sash for extreme bravery. Many local families have Kelly stories to tell!