Winemaker Profile: Russell Bourne

Wednesday, Jan 14 2009 · Posted in Interviews 

By Adam Catford

Winemaker Profile:
Name:
Russell Bourne
Age:
50
Where you currently make wine:
Battely wines
Location:
Beechworth
Where you’ve made wine in the past:
no where else
Most significant wine you’ve consumed:
1965 Brown Brothers Everton Hills Family Reserve Cabernet/Shiraz
Could you describe this wine?
Still very much alive, it shows if you have the right site in the new world you can make long lived great wines.
Wine you’re most proud of having been associated with the making of?
Any vintage of Battely when I release it.

What wine that you have made has the most interesting story behind it – and what is that story?
2003 Sojourn. A drought and bushfire year. Also a low point in my life resulting in a delay in picking. Fruit got a lot riper than I would of liked and resulting wine good but very atypical. So I declassified and blended shiraz and durif releasing only one red. 96 Parker points later we were included in the top 100 wines of the world for that year!
Is there any wine you’ve been associated with the making of that, if you had your time again, you’d treat/make differently?
Still consider myself on a learning curve so every wine teaches me something different.
In your opinion, which wine style/grape variety does Australia and New Zealand, respectively, do best?
It’s got to be Shiraz for Australia and Sauvignon Blanc…..no only joking! Pinot Noir for New Zealand.
Other than the wineries you have worked with, which Australian/NZ winery is best represented in your personal cellar?
Clonakilla.
Favourite wine region (Australia):
Beechworth by miles!
Favourite wine region (world-wide):
Piedmonte
Favourite movie:
Casablanca
Favourite book (general):
Bourne Trilogy by Robert Ludlum (ha ha : editor GW)
Favourite wine-related book:
Rhone Renaissance John Livingstone-Learmonth
Desert-island food-wine match:
Foie-Gras and Sauternes
How do you take your coffee?
Long Black
What do you most love about the wine industry?
The globalisation, quite a brother/sisterhood out there when travelling the world.
What do you most detest about the wine industry?
Wine Snobs, you have to drink at all levels to benchmark wine and there is a market for most things, not all can eat cake.
How has the 2008 turned out?
Looks great in barrel. Top vintage.


Print this article Print this article
Email this article Email this article

Tags: no tags

Comments

6 Responses to “Winemaker Profile: Russell Bourne”

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.