Winemaker

Matts winemaking Career started back in 1988 at the southern vales wine co-op which in 1993 became the famous Tatachilla Winery, which is one of Australia’s great winery success stories.
In 1996 matt spent 2 years working at Geyser Peak in California's Sonoma Valley with Darryl Groom who has won the USA’s Winemaker of the year on several occasions.

Matt made his first wine in 2001 calling it the Linchpin Shiraz. The reason for this name was the fact that every year it came from the same 3 vineyards and these vineyards are what hold the wine together (Linchpin) The Echidna brand started in 2003 whith only one wine, being the Grenache Shiraz. Which was made more for his wife's palate than his own. As time progressed these two wines eventually metamorphised into Ekhidna and Paper Eagle wines.

Matts first effort at brewing was in 1996 and whilst a little ambitious (producing 750L) with only a 100L of storage on hand...... He turned to 6L methuselah and 1.5L magnums wine bottles to house the remaining 650L !!!!! The vintage staff loved it !

Being a lot older and a little wiser the brews have come back to 50-100L batches. Allowing for plenty of experimentation and fine tuning.