A holistic view of ‘the good life’

PHILIP Lobley explained that the winery, Philip Lobley Wines, started as “a pipe dream.” He had been working in the wine industry in the Yarra Valley for De Bortolis, and had travelled overseas prior to that for a couple of years on an agricultural exchange program to the United States.

On the program, he worked on farm and did a stint working in California, where he went to the Napa Valley and “saw just the sheer scale of some of the wineries there.” He then spent 10 months just travelling through Europe.

Since then, he’s been on a trip with global viticulturalist Dr Richard Smart, who has now sadly passed away.

They went through Italy from top to bottom with Dr Smart, with 30 people on a bus being chaperoned by the Italian group, Matura Consulting.

Their consultations range from finding the vineyard site right through to building a winery, making wine, and taking care of marketing. Philip found the trip to be full of fantastic insights.

During his travels, he had fallen in love with the idea of a glass of wine with a meal.

They purchased their property in Glenburn in 1992 and began planting a small vineyard, starting with pinot noir, which grows very well in the area.

They also began growing cabernet and merlot grapes, but the vines were damaged in the 2009 bushfires. While the vines weren’t killed initially, they declined over the following three or four years. They eventually pulled…