Matt Harrop lands in the Strathbogie Ranges
Huon Hooke in Wine People Become a member to view this article
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Harrop is working with Matt Fowles in the Strathbogie Ranges. National Wine Show
Matt Harrop, one of Victoria’s leading winemakers, is back on his feet after his shock exit from Curly Flat 18 months ago.
Harrop is working with Matt Fowles in the Strathbogie Ranges, a distinguished but less well known cool-climate Victorian wine region.
Fowles and the Strathbogie Ranges were not on his radar after leaving Curly Flat, but after meeting Matt Fowles he knew he was onto something interesting.New Zealand-born Harrop achieved great things while he was the winemaker at Curly Flat in the Macedon Ranges, most notably with his pinot noirs. Before Curly Flat, he established the Shadowfax winery at Werribee and helped put that brand on the map.
As he puts it, Fowles and the Strathbogie Ranges were not on his radar after leaving Curly Flat, but after meeting Matt Fowles he knew he was onto something interesting. Fowles, which has a winery, restaurant and cellar door in Avenel, owns about 65 ha of vineyards in the region and its brands, Stone Dwellers, Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch, Are You Game? and Farm To Table, are competitively priced and growing.
Harrop estimates half the winery’s crush is for contract winemaking, and this is also half the fun for him: he gets to see the fruit from ‘all over the place’ and turn it into wine.
“We have decent sized plantings—of pinot noir, shiraz, cabernet, sangiovese, and in whites riesling, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, vermentino, arneis, and we also make sparkling wine. “We have our own bottling line and do a lot of contract bottling. So it’s a very interesting job.”
The Strathbogie Ranges is a cool, high-altitude region that is not very well known, probably because there is only one winery: Fowles. But “there are a lot of vineyards up here”, says Harrop. “A lot of the fruit goes out to other people.” Domaine Chandon has substantial vineyards there for its various sparkling wines, while boutique producers such as Yarra Valley-based Mac Forbes and Beechworth-based Schmölzer & Brown take riesling grapes from the region.
“We have stopped selling fruit, and we have new plantings coming on,” says Harrop.
“We picked our first gamay this year and I’m excited about that. This is a phylloxera quarantine zone so we are replanting vines onto phylloxera-resistant rootstocks.”
Fowles has just released a new AUD $16 wine through supermarket chain Aldi, a 2023 chardonnay branded Vinarium. Harrop is full of respect for the value for money that Aldi wines—both local and imported—offer.
He also continues with Silent Way, which is a brand of pinot noir and chardonnay he produces with his family from their own vineyard high in the Macedon Ranges. Family being his wife Tamara Grischy, general manager of Langton’s, the wine auctioneers, and three children.
He also continues with Silent Way, which is a brand of pinot noir and chardonnay he produces with his family from their own vineyard high in the Macedon Ranges.Between Curly Flat and Fowles, Harrop had a hand in the first vintages of the former Virgin Hills vineyard, also in the Macedon Ranges, since it was sold by Michael Hope of Hope Estate. Evidently, Hope kept the Virgin Hills name so the new wine will be marketed as Domaine Razal (the name of founder Tom Lazar spelt backwards), and Harrop is very excited about the 2024 and ‘25 vintages, “warmer years that suited the vineyard better than the cold and wet ’22 and ’23.”
He is also a top-level wine show judge, and is currently chair of the National Wine Show, Canberra, with one more year of his three-year term to run. There is a lot happening for Matt Harrop.
I recently tasted the 2024 Stone Dwellers Arneis (AUD $35) and was impressed by its refreshing mineral, gooseberry intensity. The ’23 Stone Dwellers Chardonnay likewise impressed my fellow taster Stuart Knox while the ’24 Stone Dwellers Riesling and ’23 Are You Game? Pinot Grigio were deemed good value in their price ranges.