Ortus produces Shiraz, Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay and Grenache, the latter grown on 80-year-old vines. “We’re very hands on and want to be welcoming visitors and talking to them about our wines as well.” “Mum and I will be the ones behind the bar a lot of the time,” says Paige. “People assumed we were going to knock it down, but we refurbished it,” says Julie. The building was once a cellar door for Richard Hamilton wines, but became run down in its later years and was used for winery storage. “We’ve taken our time, working carefully because you only get one shot at it.” “Basically, you’re looking at my life savings, it’s all gone into doing what we love. “No one knew what was going to happen with coronavirus or China, and being our own investment, we’ve done it gradually. “We purchased the building in 2015, so it’s been a long time renovating and our opening party will be six years to the day,” says Julie. The cellar door is located just three kilometres from their 10-hectare vineyards on the outskirts of Willunga. Now, their new Willunga cellar door is set to open after a launch party on December 18. The new Ortus Wines cellar door at Willunga.īecause of this, Julie and Paige decided to name their 21st Century wine label Ortus, meaning a new beginning - a reference to the serendipitous nature of their family history. The winemaker was a Prussian settler with the surname Bittner, which means barrel-maker, but being unfamiliar with the region’s climate, the vineyard succumbed to drought after about 20 years. The pair had already purchased their first vineyard on the outskirts of Willunga when they discovered a forgotten connection to a winemaker who had bought land in Tanunda and delivered a first vintage 132 years ago. Julie moved from Whyalla to Adelaide in 1995 and happened to pick up a job as a receptionist with Beresford Wines and went on to become a wine marketer. Paige was a school teacher who has more recently studied biotechnology and winemaking.
Neither Julie or Paige had come from winemaking families. When Julie Cooper and her daughter, winemaker Paige Cooper, set out to create their own boutique wine label about 10 years ago, they had no idea there was a winemaker in their family ancestry. Ortus Wines is the boutique label of winemaker Paige Cooper and her mother Julie Cooper.
A town built on resilience learns to diversify Search All categories
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