Welcome to the Story of HentyFarm Wines

Boutique Wines

We’re thrilled to introduce you to our wines and our story. It involves passion, creativity and the pleasure of sharing a dream. Take a tour through our tale to discover the people behind the Hentyfarm vision.

Cheers, Jono Mogg and Belinda Low

Our Story

Grab a glass of wine, pull up a pew and let us tell you the story of how Hentyfarm came to life.

Jono Mogg & Belinda Low

The story begins in Henty, in Victoria’s Far South West. Other than being a well-kept secret for a few insiders, this region has been relatively unknown for many years. These days, the word is out that it’s a hot spot for cool-climate wine production.

It all started in 2009, when Jono and Adam Wadewitz were working together at Best’s Great Western – Jono as General Manager of sales and marketing, and Adam as winemaker. The Mogg and Wadewitz families grew interested in this area after experiencing Henty on weekend sojourns through the Victorian countryside. We spent our nights hatching a plan to bring our expression of Henty wines to life. We simply couldn’t turn our backs on this magical combination of super cool climate, limestone bedrock soils and passionate growers, who were guiding the grapes so adeptly through the sometimes arduously cool and wet conditions.

Our Vision

Hentyfarm is about artistic expression at its most elemental. It starts in the vineyard, where our relationship with the growers is based on respect as custodians of the land. Then the alchemy begins, where the combinations of older French oak, low intervention winemaking, native and introduced yeasts and naturally driven “hand plunged” ferments culminate in wines of finesse and elegance.

In 2013, a Pinot Gris was added to the list, made from Drumborg grapes tended carefully by “biological grape farmers” Jack and Lois Doevan. Plans are in place to bring Riesling into the Hentyfarm fray, likely from 2014 and also made from the Doevan’s Drumborg fruit.

From 2013, we decided to guide the winemaking styles by employing the skills of Justin Purser at Best’s Great Western. His experience in and passion for Burgundy make him the perfect contributor to our winemaking family.

Our collective approach is rustic and minimal, holding true to the idea that this winemaking venture is a farming practice. Production will continue to be small and handcrafted, allowing the wines to speak of purity and place. Hentyfarm wines are not rushed to market, their refined European style needing more time in the bottle to develop and soften before heading out to Australia’s best restaurants and liquor stores.

The decision was taken to also move the contract winemaking from Justin at Best’s to our good friend of many years, Ray Nadeson at Lethbridge wines in Geelong. Ray has long been associated with fruit from the Henty region after using this regional fruit source for a number of wines in the Lethbridge range in the past. Ray brings to Hentyfarm a deep understanding of the fruit from this region and also a respect for the style of wines Hentyfarm has been making. We look forward to working closely with Ray to develop the wines further.

Timeline

2009

Hentyfarm’s first vintage was made for family and friends. A Chardonnay, small in number but big on elegance, was a sign of great things to come.

2010

The second vintage, Hentyfarm’s first foray into selling wines outside our troop of family and friends, featured a Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir, embraced by a handful of Melbourne and regional Victorian restaurants and consumers for their delicate touch, understated style and finesse.

2011

The third vintage, also a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay, was made from grapes cultivated by renowned Henty grower Alastair Taylor. His immaculately groomed vineyards now deliver chardonnay and pinot noir parcels exclusively for Hentyfarm.

2012

When 2012 came around, the Chardonnay and the Pinot Noir were again produced, and the continuing fine, linear style of the wines was further established. We were living the dream, making European-style wines of subtlety and restraint, with no guiding forces other than our own creativity and a little experimental wizardry thrown in for good measure. Fulfillment at its best.

2013

In 2013, a Pinot Gris was added to the range, made from celebrated Drumborg grapes tended carefully by “biological grape farmers” Jack and Lois Doevan. In the same year, Adam and his family left Victoria for work in South Australia, and Belinda and Jono embraced full curatorship of Hentyfarm.

2014

This was a difficult vintage throughout the Western and South Western wine growing regions of Victoria. Extremely low yields and harsh climatic conditions meant that in the Henty region, fruit was very hard to source and growers had to rationalise and reduce the amount they could portion to producers. We were only able to secure tiny amounts of Pinot Gris fruit from Jack & Lois’s Drumborg vineyard – enough to make 30 cases ! We also brought in just over a tonne of Chardonnay from Alastair Taylor’s vineyard and made a lovely Chardonnay which is now getting ready for release next year.

2015

Our seventh vintage and we were so happy to receive the news that due to our lean year with growers in 2014, we had positioned ourselves for a better fruit intake in 2015. We were able to secure Riesling fruit from Drumborg, with Jack & Lois providing excellent fruit quality and good amounts of Pinot Gris. We also had a better year with Alastair in Heywood with good amount of excellent Chardonnay and Pinot Noir fruit coming in for processing. We were also extremely fortunate to be offered a parcel of precious Pinot Meunier fruit from Alastair’s vineyard. This has been made into a beguiling red table wine in Great Western, where they have incredible experience with this variety and style – having been making this un-common wine for over forty years.

2017

HUGE changes at Hentyfarm, with Jono moving on from working at Best’s to concentrate full time on the Hentyfarm and a new business venture – exporting wine to China. The decision was taken to also move the contract winemaking from Justin at Best’s to our good friend of many years, Ray Nadeson at Lethbridge wines in Geelong. Ray has long been associated with fruit from the Henty region after using this regional fruit source for a number of wines in the Lethbridge range in the past. Ray brings to Hentyfarm a deep understanding of the fruit from this region and also a respect for the style of wines Hentyfarm has been making. In 2017 we brought in Riesling and Pinot Gris from Jack Deovan which is looking incredible in the bottle as well as Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier from Alastair Taylor which from the barrel is some of the best wine Jono has tasted from the Hentyfarm stable. We look forward to sharing these with you in the months and years to come.

Try & Taste HentyFarm

Hentyfarm wines are made with a European sensibility. They are hand-crafted using a natural winemaking approach, allowing the pristine purity of the fruit to speak for itself in each of our wines. All fruit is source from Henty in Victoria. Keen to taste a Hentyfarm wine for yourself? Contact Jono on M: 0423 029 200 or [email protected] and we can ship the wine direct to your door. Pick a date on our tasting calendar or drop into one of our passionate fine wine stockists or restaurants to get your hands on a bottle or two.

Melbourne

Restaurants

Cosi
Cutler & Co
Rumi
Steak Ministry Bar & Grill
Supernormal
Taxi Kitchen
The Junction Hotel
Tipo OO
Yu-U

Fine Wine Stores

Prince Wine Store
Cloud Wine
Blackhearts & Sparrows
Wine Republic
City Wine Shop

Regional Victoria

Restaurants

The Stag Port Fairy
Union Street Wine
Bottles & Barrels
Brae
Union Street Wine
Stones of the Yarra Valley
Randall’s the Wine Merchant
Wine Republic
Mark’s Restaurant

Fine Wine Stores

Corkscrew Cellars

Sydney

Restaurants

Nomad
Rockpool
Mr Wong

Fine Wine Stores

Kemeny’s
Annandale Cellars
Cremorne Cellars
Best Cellars
Marlborough Hotel
Unity Hall Hotel

Regional NSW

Restaurants

BamVino – Erina, Central Coast