Estate of excitement
It's been three years since James Oliver and Constance Olivier moved from Victoria's Yarra Valley to take on ownership of Moores Hill Estate. You wouldn't think so. To see them working their way through their vineyard at the start of another new season is like watching two kids in the proverbial lolly shop.
A few short shoots here, signs of strong growth there. You name it, these busy vignerons don't miss a thing.
Then there are the bursts of high energy when cellar door visitors are ready for their next tasting sample or need a few words of casual banter to put them at ease. This couple is clearly enjoying life in the beautiful Tamar Valley.
It seems only yesterday that Oliver and Olivier settled into their new career roles. In fact, it was July 2022 when they first took on their new wine business with its 25-year-old vineyard.
Previous owners Julian Allport, Fiona Weller and Tim and Sheena High were ready for new challenges. Allport and Weller had been there 14 years.
"Constance and I had been wanting a vineyard of our own in a cool climate area and when Moores Hill became available, we jumped at the opportunity," Oliver says.
"We couldn't wait to get here and get started."
The newcomers barely gave themselves time to unpack and say hello and bonjour to their neighbours before getting stuck into a couple of months of hands-on pruning.
Their journey to the 5.6ha vineyard at Sidmouth – not far from the valley's landmark Batman Bridge – had been a fairly brief but circuitous one.
Born and raised in Ballarat, Victoria, Oliver is a Viticulture and Oenology graduate of the University of Adelaide. Before meeting his future wife at Yering Station in 2019, the Pinot Noir aficianado worked vintages in Germany and the USA.
Coonawarra and the Mornington Peninsula also figure on Oliver's CV.
French-born Olivier is also a winemaker. She grew up near Paris and later went on to study and work in both Bordeaux and Burgundy. Those formative experiences could not have been better scripted. Within days of moving to their new home in the West Tamar, Olivier was formulating plans for managing Moores Hill's Bordeaux and Burgundy red varieties.
The couple's purchase included 1ha (combined) of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and 1ha of Pinot Noir. Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Riesling completed the vineyard rollcall, with the latter being the estate's principal variety by vine area (1.5ha).
Right from the outset, Oliver and Olivier committed themselves to continuing and enhancing Moores Hill's reputation for wine quality. A reputation hard-earned and well-deserved that began a quarter-century earlier with vineyard founders Rod and Karen Thorpe.
"We may be winemakers by training, but viticulture is at the heart of everything we do here," Oliver explains.
"Our aim is to make wines of distinction and quality, reflecting the unique terroir of our site. We make no compromises to quality.
"One of the reasons we purchased the property is that Fiona and Julian set new standards in establishing our state-of-the-art, off-grid winery. We love the idea that the energy we consume is produced by the sun.
"Our plan is to make this business more and more sustainable over time. That includes our vineyard as well as our winery. We're here for the long haul."
The first significant new developments that appeared on the property probably went un-noticed by Moores Hill's loyal band of regular cellar door visitors.
The vineyard's pruning regime implemented that first winter saw each vine's structure reduced to a single upright trunk and two horizontal canes. The intended quality dividend is enhanced fruit intensity at the expense of reduced bunch numbers per vine.
The precision placement and number of individual pruning cuts takes into account a French technique called Guyot Poussard. This essentially respects the natural flow of sap through each vine. Elimination or minimisation of deep pruning cuts helps preserve vital pathways for nutrients to travel through the vine, ultimately prolonging its life.
The technique also appears to reduce the likelihood of diseases and disorders such as Eutypa – 'dead arm disease' - from entering the plant.
Winter and spring 2022 also saw the commencement of new programs of vine nutrition based on the use of organic-based fertiliser. Vineyard mid-rows are now planted with cover crops comprising legumes, cereals, lupins and radishes, in order to break up compacted soils. These green manures are then slashed in early spring and left to decompose, making valuable contributions to soil structure, nitrogen status and biodiversity across the site.
The introduction of new clonal selections over the past three years has not only increased blending options in the winery, it's enabled the couple to lengthen the duration of the vineyard's critical harvest period.
Subtle differences in the rates at which bunches reach full maturity and optimum ripeness allow far more targeted picking to occur. Vineyard blocks of a single grape variety are more likely to see harvesting take place over a number of days rather than on a single day.
"With regard to our Pinot Noir, each clone brings its own special verve and style to the finished wine," Oliver says.
"Although they almost always look best when blended together, the fact that we've been able to increase the number of clones we have here provides us with quite a few more winemaking options than we had in the past."
And the future?
That certainly looks bright, given the ambition and energy of this young pair of winemakers.
It seems few tears were shed in the valley when Oliver and Olivier pulled out their 1ha of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in July of 2023. The old vines made way for newcomers much better suited to the site.
The couple can hardly wait to see what their new Pommard selection of Pinot Noir has to offer.
Back to the lolly shop…
Last page update: 26 May 2026