Chalmers Wines

Pioneering Alternative Varieties in Australia

Almost 20 years ago, when Chalmers began making wines from the many new varieties they had imported, they were often creating the very first examples of these wines in Australia. Coming from a purely viticultural perspective, they were trying to understand if these grapes were suitable for growing unique and distinctive wine in their new home.

Rather than work with a winemaker whose approach is to craft and mould wine using all available tools and techniques, they set out to work with someone who would let the fruit speak for itself, without interfering too much in the process. The wine in bottle had to be an honest and transparent translation of the grapes, the season, and the vineyard.

Winemaking Philosophy

From their first vintage in 2003, Chalmers worked with Kooyong winery, whose then-winemaker Sandro Mosele was a proponent of minimal intervention winemaking—now a somewhat overused industry buzzword, but back then a rare but growing philosophy in Australia. Since 2017, the wines have been made by the Chalmers family themselves at their new Merbein winery, where the philosophy remains unchanged: wild ferments, no acid additions wherever possible, and no unnecessary filtration or fining processes.

Vineyard Practices

In the vineyard, every care is taken to grow grapes with the least environmental impact, using organic nutrition and fungicide programs and non-residual weed control. All grapes are harvested at optimum balance of ripeness and acidity as determined by flavour tasting. Hand-picked fruit is often refrigerated overnight before processing the next day.

The combination of unique characteristics from the varieties and sites with mindful, hands-off winemaking leads to authentic expressions that create the common thread across the diverse ranges of wine made by Chalmers.

Wine Tasting

Open for tastings and sales every Friday and Monday from 10am to 3pm. Closed on public holidays.