WINEMAKER Ian Rathjen has a simple method for success: don't advertise, don't market and don't try to find buyers.
- Ian Rathjen, Heathcote, Victoria
The anti-marketing strategy seems to have worked for his Whistling Eagle winery at Heathcote.
Ian's wine is sold in restaurants across Australia, overseas and to Qantas first-class passengers.
It has also scored a 95-point review from one of the world's most prestigious wine magazines, Wine Spectator.
The former shearer and dairy farmer had not originally intended to make wine, preferring to sell grapes to wine companies.
But he had some grapes left over in 1999 and decided to "have a go" at making wine. A visiting acquaintance liked it so much he advised Ian to design a label.
Then a chance article in Gourmet Traveller resulted in calls from buyers and restaurants, and later a US distributor rang after having tasted the wine in a Melbourne restaurant.
Now, 20 per cent of Whistling Eagle shiraz is sold to the US.
"I don't do enough marketing; I should do more," Ian said.
"I always thought if I could just make the best wine I possibly could (the rest would look after itself) . . . chance and fate have been wonderful to me."
Ian had no training in making wine but admits he's "reasonable" at growing grapes.
He gathered winemaking knowledge through experimentation and asking questions.
Ian said he liked his vines to have some "tension" but not be under stress - he decides when to water, and how much, through a visual inspection of the vines rather than by following any schedule.
In recent dry years he has used one megalitre of water a hectare on the plantings annually.
In a "normal" year he uses a third of that.
He also believes that overwatering results in bigger fruit, which dilutes the flavour.
He aims to produce about only one tonne of grapes a hectare, and experiments with yeast, fruit and oak every year.
"I'm a minimalist: I try to let things take their natural course," Ian said.
"I don't know too much, I just try to let the fruit express what's there."
Ian bought 160ha he considered suitable for shiraz in 1995 from his uncle after selling 360ha of grazing country near Colbinabbin. Steady plantings since have resulted in the vineyard growing to almost 40ha.
When Ian first bought the property, a bore provided water at 1200 EC units. Salinity levels have since tripled, so Ian has installed a pipe that connects him to permanent irrigation water.
He and his wife, Lynne, are considering installing a wind turbine to make the operation carbon neutral, because "it's what the world needs".
Their daughter Trish, who has studied viticulture, now lives and works at the winery while their nephew Guy, a qualified winemaker, started work with them last year.
Production for the Whistling Eagle label has risen from 70 dozen bottles in 1999 to 1000 dozen last year - still only 15 per cent of the property's grapes - with the rest sold to wine companies.
