Three generations of winemaking on the Granite Belt, Australia
In 1974, Marco and Rosa Marchetti traded the suburbs of Sydney for a quiet parcel of red-soil country on the Granite Belt, Australia. Marco, the son of Calabrian immigrants, had grown up watching his father turn back-yard grapes into rough table wine. The Granite Belt offered something his father never had: genuine cool-climate altitude, reliable rainfall and deep volcanic loam.
The first Shiraz cuttings went into the ground that same winter. By the early 1980s, neighbours were driving out on weekends to buy a flagon of red and a bag of Marco's cured olives. A shed was converted into a rudimentary cellar door, and the estate began to take shape.
Three generations, one philosophy
Today the property is managed by Marco's daughter, Lucia, and her children. The approach has barely changed: intervene as little as possible in the vineyard, pick by hand, ferment with native yeast and let the fruit speak for itself. The original 1974 Shiraz block — now gnarled, low-yielding and full of character — still produces the estate's flagship wine.
An Italian heart in Australian soil
Walk through the cellar door and the Italian heritage is unmistakable: jars of preserved peppers line the shelves, a bocce court stretches along the northern fence, and the kitchen always smells of something baking. But the wines belong unmistakably to this place — shaped by granite, altitude and seasons that swing from summer heat to winter frost in the space of a week.