Description
About Patch Wines
Patch Wines is a collaboration between Kirilly Gordon and Matt Talbot that came to life after a brief stint working together in the Yarra Valley before Covid struck. When a patch of vines laden with ripe grapes turned up with no home to go to, it seemed like an excellent idea to turn them into wine!
Kirilly has 20 years of winemaking and viticulture experience, a degree in Ag Science from UniMelb, a degree in Wine Science from CSU, has done a couple of vintages in France and Italy, has a full-time winemaking gig, as well as her own brand ‘Bowerbird Wines’ up her sleeve. She also is a full-time mum to two amazing boys, loves gardening, growing vegies, cuddling her pet bunnies and running!
Matt grew up in the Yarra Valley, he worked in vineyards whilst studying for a Viticulture and Wine Production diploma before spending time in the hospo scene throughout Melbourne & Sydney and then transitioning into wine sales locally and internationally. He is doggo dad to Louis, loves Harley’s, Japanese tattoos, the Tigers, and works full time at Grapeworks.
‘Shed Red’ was the first Patch wine, it was a field blend of Bordeaux varieties as well as a Turkish variety called Bogazkere, which translates to ‘throat burner’! It doesn’t actually burn your throat! But has plenty of tannin that ended up blending very nicely in the final wine.
We spend as much time as we can in the vineyard to shoot thin and fruit thin to ensure the best quality we can. The rest of the work we leave to the expertise of the very talented viticulturists managing the vineyards. We pick most of the grapes with friends to help, we destem and press in a tiny press in the vineyard shed. We have small fermenting pots and a Speidel Egg. The Spring reds stay in stainless steel or the Egg. The Dark Patch reds go to mature oak barriques. The whites stay in stainless steel or the egg for fermenting.
The grapes for Patch Wines are chosen from hand-picked, acclaimed vineyards and are made with the intent to have minimal intervention. We listen to the flavours and the ferments and are guided by intuition but also very much by a knowledge of the science of winemaking. We want these wines to be honest, well made, delicious and inspiring to drink.
