From sunshine in the vineyards to permanent purple hands in the winery - It's vintage!

The smell of the beautiful glorious ripe grapes from picking to crushing to pressing… when it smells this good, you know you’ve got a bonza of a vintage!

Hey! I’m Alex and I am stoked to be a part of the amazing S&K vintage 2021 team.

Who am I? What do I do? Well, I had just finished my Bachelor of Agriculture at Melbourne University earlier this year and was looking to get hands-on experience in the industry before my next stage of study. With thanks to Natasha, Wendy, Faustine and the team at S&K, I left the familiar comforts of Melbourne and set up camp in Rutherglen as vintage cellar hand at S&K! What a dream come true!

I just love winemaking (er…assisting in). I had studied wine subjects but nothing beats the excitement, the chaos, the stress and the adrenalin of vintage. As cellar hand, I clean, I clean, I clean and did I say…clean? We get the tanks ready for when the fruit arrives, we crush, we press, we inoculate, we pump over, we check the baumé, we check the temperature, we rack, again, again and again.

The days and nights are hard and long but incredibly satisfying as the winemaking processes progress and the fruit is transformed into wine.

As vintage nears an end, we too move on to the work that follows, cask maintenance, cask filling, blending.

Yep, you can’t wipe the smile off my face!

Alex Chua

Cellar hand