Description
About Pizzini Wines
Creating connections—with food, with the land, and with each other…
Our story is the culmination of several journeys and two significant destinations. From Trentino in the far northern reaches of Italy, to here, amongst the fertile undulations of the King Valley.
This is where, for over 30 years, our family’s love of food, wine, and craft has manifested and been brought to life. Because, to us, wine is more than a drink… it’s our culture. And when combined with friends, family, and a table filled with food, it acts as a conduit for connection—helping to bring people together, to slow down, and revel in each other’s company.
Here, around our kitchen table, pasta is rolled, bread kneaded, and sauce spilled. Here, wine is poured, stories are told, and the volume is loud. Here, we connect with what’s important.
In 1996 Alfredo and Katrina began selling their wines at their cellar door – a converted tobacco drying kiln on the property. They had 300 cases of both Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon to sell, at the time they thought it would take forever to move as the King Valley was a relatively unknown wine region, let alone a food and wine tourism destination.
To encourage visitation to their cellar door, the Pizzini’s invested in three hospitality businesses around 1995. The first was a little restaurant in Oxley purchased along with three other local families, and leased to two new-comers to the region – Steve and Will Flamsteed – who began the King River Cafe. The Cafe quickly attracted many visitors who enjoyed the region’s wines.
The second was the Mountain View Hotel in Whitfield. Daughter Natalie and Alfredo’s nephew, Adam Pizzini, took the reigns and quickly set about turning the hotel into an award winning country hotel, well known for its food and hospitality. Lastly they renovated a cottage on the property and turned it into self-contained Vineyard Accommodation.
These investments were instrumental in driving visitation through the new cellar door. Whilst no longer an investor in the King River Cafe, the family is still hands on with the running of the Mountain View hotel in Whitfield.
At the beginning of the 2000s the family decided to concentrate on the production of Italian varietals. New vineyard sites were planted with the latest and best clones available in Australia including Sangiovese, Pinot Grigio, Brachetto, Nebbiolo and Prosecco. Over this time, Alfredo and Joel evaluated sites post-vintage to determine the future of the varieties on these particular sites. If the site consistently produced below standard fruit, the vines were grafted over to a variety more suited to the terrain.
The building of the new cellar door began in 2009 incorporating a cooking school run by Katrina Pizzini. Katrina has expanded this business that includes a cookbook and specialty produce.
As the family has grown, so too has the business. From the initial 600 case production – which they thought would never sell – Pizzini has grown to producing over 90,000 cases annually, much of which is sold domestically. More importantly, it is the growth of the Pizzini family that is most satisfying. All of Alfredo and Katrina’s children have now married and begun their own families. They have ten grandchildren, with the eldest lending a hand during events at the winery and school holidays.
