A little flair, substance & self belief can do amazing things.

By Jono • June 17, 2008

I’ve just finished watching the 7.30 report on ABC TV, and was interested to see a story they had on the small (and until very recently), unknown winery on the outskirts of Melbourne, called Withmount Estate Winery. This small winery in RockBank, about a half hours drive from the CBD, has recently won the worlds best Shiraz, at the 2008 Syrah DuMonde International Shiraz Challenge in France.

This is no small feat for a winery in unknown wine country, at least globally, if not in Australia, and just goes to show what can come to fruition with a bit of vision and belief.

The Ramunno family planted the vineyard around 18 years ago, on the flat volcanic soils at RockBank outside of Melbourne to produce wines made in the the Italian style for family consumption, and now has grown into a commercial venture.

Check out the Witchmount Website for more information, but by all accounts the 2004 Shiraz sold out on the first day after the award was made public.

I’m sure there are plenty of larger, more financial, more influential wineries who would’ve loved to take out this award, but it’s nice to see the small family owned wine business finding something to cheer about, as lately, the wine industry has been tough on many small wine businesses, from tax hikes toÂ wine gluts.

As Tony Ramunno stated in the interview, he still has the same problem -Â stock -Â except now he’s run out.

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About the Author

Jono

Jono has been involved in the wine industry since he was quite young. His parents had a small vineyard and winery in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia, and spent plenty of school holidays working in the vineyard and winery. He completed a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Oenology) from the University of Adelaide (formely the Roseworthy Agricultural College). He also holds a Post Graduate Degree in Business Management from Monash University. His wine industry experience include working as a winemaker for Petaluma in the Adelaide Hills under the legendary Brian Croser. He was then sent to Smithbrook in the Pemberton region of Western Australia, then owned by Petaluma. He spent 6 years at Smithbrook managing the vineyard and winery, and during that time also completed a vintage at Chateau Carsin in Bordeaux. The two years leading into 2008, he traveled the world with his partner sampling the worlds best wines, and also fulfilling his other passion of equestrian competition.