Chip off Hunter block

When Jim Chatto was appointed chief winemaker at Mount Pleasant in the Hunter Valley in 2013, he trudged through kilometre after kilometre of its old vineyards in order to get to know the place. He already knew its history. 

During its halcyon years of Maurice O'Shea stewardship – from the early 1920s to the mid-1950s – Mount Pleasant became renowned for producing some of Australia's greatest wines.

The quietly perceptive and very talented Chatto appears to have been a fast learner.

Not only do the company's current releases figure among the nation's best, the Pokolbin producer itself has just been named Winery of the Year in the 2017 edition of the authoritative James Halliday Wine Companion.

The award – along with a swag of others – was announced last week on 3 August.

Chatto is now back on home turf at Glaziers Bay in southern Tasmania. There's been a whirlwind of public, industry and media engagements. And with much of the critical acclaim still ringing in his ears, the shy and retiring Chatto reckons he's walking on clouds at the moment.

"I've had the rare privilege of tasting some great O'Shea wines, so I've always been aware of the gravitas the role carries and the enormous responsibility that comes with it of honouring the legacy of Maurice O'Shea and the individuality of each Mount Pleasant site," Chatto says.

"Accepting the award was the proudest moment in my career.

"It would also be Mt Pleasant's most significant recognition since the early days. But it's not just my success. We have a top team in the Hunter. Right across the board."

Author, wine judge and Coldstream Hills founder/winemaker James Halliday AO has been a regular commentator on the country's far-flung wine industry since 1970. He published his first annual guide to Australian wine in 1997. It reviewed some 1150 wines from 400+ wineries.

Over 9000 wines were tasted for the 2017 edition of Halliday's highly-respected annual tome. It's just been published by Hardie Grant Books (Melbourne).

"With seven Shiraz wines scoring between 97 and 99 points, supported by three Semillons scoring more than 95 points, it was the only possible choice as Winery of the Year in this Wine Companion," Halliday observed.

"One of Maurice O'Shea's great strengths was his ability to taste wines near or at the end of fermentation, and know where they would fit under the Mount Pleasant label. Chatto has adopted an O'Shea approach to the vineyards of Mount Pleasant.

"A forensic palate, and vine-by-vine observation are his tools."

Chatto's career to date has taken something of a circuitous route. Back in the early 1990s – during his winemaking studies – the young bloke from Canberra discovered bottle-aged Hunter Valley Semillon.

One particular wine – a 1984 Mount Pleasant Semillon – moved him so much he applied for work at the Pokolbin winery. The company didn't recognise his talents back then, but they surely made up for it 20 years later.

The intervening period saw Chatto working on several other sites in the Hunter Valley instead.

In 1998 – while still in his mid-20s – the young bloke took a break from warm-climate winemaking and headed south to Tasmania. Chatto was given the plum job of taking charge of a new vineyard and 500-tonne winery on the West Tamar.

In addition to producing wines for Dr Mike Beamish's Notley Gorge and Rosevears Estate labels, the role included overseeing contract winemaking for several other northern vineyard clients, including Iron Pot Bay and Sharmans.

An associate judging position at the 1999 Tasmanian Wine Show only months after his appointment introduced him to a handful of stellar Pinot Noirs. They were made during the State's landmark 1998 vintage. 

Around the same time, Chatto met his future wife in Launceston, a young Tasmanian woman named Daisy.

He was soon hooked on both counts.

The lure of doing bigger and better things elsewhere saw Chatto move back to the mainland in the early 2000s but his love and respect for Pinot Noir soon became a shared and consuming passion for the young couple.

It took Jim and Daisy Chatto more than six years to find a greenfield site that ticked every single box on their shopping list.

Tasmania was not just at the top of the list. It was the only State on the list.

"When it comes to growing and making world-class Pinot Noir, I wouldn't plant anywhere else but Tasmania," Chatto insists.

The site purchased by the couple is little more than a grape toss from one of the Huon Valley's pioneering vineyards, Elsewhere Vineyard.

Among the State's most southerly vineyards, the couple's site at Glaziers Bay is described by Chatto as being "right on the edge of viticultural possibility."

Isle Vineyard sprang into life in 2007, with the planting (5000 vines/ha) of 8 carefully chosen clones of Pinot Noir. The gently sloping, north-facing site is underpinned by ancient sandstones, mudstones, and river sediments.

While Chatto is out of the State attending to his duties at Mount Pleasant, the vineyard is carefully tended by Paul Lipscombe. He and his wife Gilli do double duty, also running their Sailor Seeks Horse venture at Cradoc, located around five or six kilometres north of Glaziers Bay.

Gilli's other job sees her holding the winemaking reins at Ranelagh's celebrated Home Hill Vineyard. It's owned by local business couple, Terry and Rosemary Bennett.

Home Home achieved international wine success in 2007, winning the Tri Nations Challenge Pinot Noir Trophy for wines produced in Australia, New Zealand and Africa.

Chatto, meanwhile, was announced a Young Gun of Wine finalist that same year (2007).

(Last year, the Lipscombes went a step or two further than their Tri Nations win. Home Hill won the prestigious Jimmy Watson Trophy at the 2015 Melbourne Wine Awards. It was the first time a Tasmanian wine had been awarded Australia's most renowned red wine trophy.

The Melbourne event also saw Home Hill win the James Halliday Trophy for Best Pinot Noir.)

Chatto Wines made its debut with a tiny volume of Pinot Noir, produced from the low-yielding, high-quality 2012 vintage. Carefully crafted from estate-grown fruit and Pinot Noir grown at several neighbouring vineyards, Chatto's 2012 Huon Valley received rapturous critical acclaim on release.

Vintage 2014 saw a select bottling of small-batch Pinot Noir from Chatto's own vineyard. The wine appeared on the market late last year as Chatto Isle. It's the company's flagship. 

More rapturous critical acclaim.

The wine is as stylistically removed from those that Chatto pieces together in the Hunter Valley as it is geographically. 'Chalk and cheese' comes to mind.

What they share is more important than their differences. An artisan winemaker whose pursuit of perfection knows no bounds. 

Walking vineyards is where it begins.

Last page update: January 2026