Business features

One of only two wineries in Pentland Hills, St Anne’s Vineyard’s bluestone cellar door sometimes hosts up to six tour bus loads of appreciative Asian tourists a day, before they head down the Western Highway to Sovereign Hill in nearby Ballarat.

“It took us a while to work out what they wanted,” explained Angus McLean, St Anne’s Winery’s Export Manager. “They would talk dry, but want sweet. In the cellar door we would pour them a dry shiraz, and they would leave with just a few bottles between a few of them. We learnt to promote our sweeter varieties and sales increased dramatically.”

St Anne’s Vineyard sees a minimum of 25,000 to 26,000 Chinese tourists a year. It has provided the winery valuable insight into an export market which the company sees as a major part of its future.

“It’s very difficult to sell wine locally because the local market is pretty much dominated by the big players,” Angus explained. “One of the wine clubs we service did a recent survey of major liquor retailers and determined that 95% of the wine brands carried by one respective store were owned by five major wine companies. This leaves a 5% share for both Australian and imported brands to compete for.”

First established by Angus’ parents, Alan & Shirley McLean, in Myrniong in Pentland Hills in 1972, St Anne’s Vineyard today is not a fledgling boutique winery classified in a ‘small-player’ category. The company now produces around five million litres of wine per annum.

The two economics degree graduates – Alan McLean at one time even worked as a teacher – looked at potential properties east of Melbourne before settling on the Myrniong property in the west of Melbourne.

“It was close to Melbourne, and the climate was ideal to grow cool climate wines,” Angus said. “I guess it was in the blood. My father had family in the industry, growing wine grapes in Langhorne Creek in South Australia.”

Alan and Shirley planted chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, sauvignon blanc and riesling, built a home and began construction of the bluestone cellar door from the remnants of Ballarat's original 1840s gaol. Completed in 1992, the recycled bluestone restaurant facility – one room can seat up to 300 people, the other can seat up to 100 people – is today a popular venue for Melbournite weddings and corporate functions.

The extremely cool climate and high annual rainfall led to premium viticultural conditions, enabling the Myrniong vineyard to produce premium, low-yield cool-quality fruit. Today, the St Anne’s wine list includes table wines such as riesling, chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and shiraz, as well as fortifieds and dessert wines, which have a loyal following.

“We make our own barrels for the fortifieds,” Angus said. “We have our own cooperage onsite where 87 yea-old Frank James Adams has been working since 1986. My grandfather found him. Frank was at retirement age – we got him, and all of his tools and equipment.

“He’s a bachelor, and bored. So he comes up here from Moonee Ponds twice a week, bangs away and talks to anyone with a pulse – the customers love him.”

Grandfather Gilbert McLean, helped Allan and Shirley set up the Myrniong winery in the early ‘70s. Angus and his younger brothers helped out by picking grapes during the summer and pruning during the winter. Older sister Anne, after who the winery is named, somehow escaped manual vineyard duties.

“She’s not so saintly!” Angus said. “She’s the oldest so she got naming rights.”

Three of four McLean siblings manage the St Anne’s Winery business today. Angus McLean has operated the Myrniong property along with partner Virginie for a decade now. His parents and three siblings are based on a substantial vineyard development in Moama in southern NSW, just a two-hour drive away.

“They were pretty good at selling their product,” Angus said. “But being such a small winery there just wasn’t enough product to sell. So they bought a winery in a warmer region so they could diversify and expand their wine range.

“After my parents had set up St Anne’s, they bought a small winery in McLaren Vale in ’79. They sold it in 1992, and then bought the Moama property.”

The Moama vineyard and winery is the bigger operation of the two. It processes 5,000 tonnes of fruit a year, and contains 400 acres of grapes. The Myrniong property crushes 30 tonnes of fruit and contains 20 acres of grapes. The company’s new wine-making facilities are based at Moama – only a small amount of wine is produced at the Myrniong site.

Angus’ three siblings are based at Moama. Younger brother Richard is the winemaker, and older sister Anne manages company administration. Younger brother Alastair runs the family-owned restaurant in Echuca called La Vita.

“My parents are at Moama, and are definitely still involved,” Angus said with obvious bemusement. “Last year we sent them off for six weeks on a global fact-finding mission. They went to the Napa Valley in California, and southern France. It went really well. This year I think we’ll send them to Croatia, and maybe France again.”

St Anne’s Winery is actively researching and pursuing export opportunities. Other than sending his parents off on “fact-finding missions”, Angus has attended events such as ProWein in Germany and other international wine exhibitions.

“Export is our future,” Angus said. “We see our future is in the export market, pre-dominantly China. We already do a lot of business in China – they love us because we’re clean and green and our wine is great.”