BY JESS ROUSE
Alisdaire Tulloch grew up in a wine family, the son of well-known Hunter Valley winemaker Keith Tulloch. He has worked among the vineyards for as long as he can remember and now, he’s stepped out on his own to create ‘AEON Wines’.
The fifth-generation winemaker and his wife Kenisha have created three Syrah (AKA shiraz) wines all made from 100 percent Hunter Valley grapes.
“My grapes are harvested slightly earlier so the wines are lower in alcohol, I incorporate a lot of bunches in the winemaking and a minimal use of oak. These wines are interesting and have a style that allows me to be very expressive.
“They’re all based on Syrah which is a passion of mine. Syrah is one of the oldest and most recognised grapes in Australia.
“The Light Dry Red is a combination of Syrah and Pinot Noir which is something that is ready to enjoy with a lot of layers to it. Then we have two single vineyard wines. One is a Field Blend with Syrah, Touriga Nacional and Viognier, and then a single vineyard Syrah from a vineyard at Merriwa.”
Keith Tulloch Wine is the first certified Carbon Neutral winery in the Hunter Valley meaning their business and wines create zero net emissions from grape to glass.
AEON Wines is created using the same carbon neutral methods.
Alisdaire said he let his imagination run wild with the name and the look of the wines.
“AEON can either be an ambiguously long period of time or in a cosmological sense it can be a period of a billion years. The Hunter Valley has been formed over billions of years by geology and the climate to make what we have today, and these wines are a snapshot in time.
“The Hunter Valley is one of the most beautiful places in the world. We have quite variable weather, so I reflected that in one of the labels which has a vivid photograph of the sky and clouds over the Valley. The two single vineyard wines have an up-close photograph of basalt and the alluvial stones in one of the vineyards,” explained Alisdaire.
Alisdaire’s wines are available online, and you can organise to taste his wines amongst the vineyards on the back of Alisdaire’s ute.
Alisdaire has already harvested his 2024 vintage, and he can’t wait to share it.
“We have been blown away by the local support. Kenisha and I can’t wait to see what the future of AEON Wines holds.”
