Women first
Three women, three new business directions, three years on. Good luck usually follows when three of a kind come together.
That could be the storyline when Julieanne Mani, Ashli Rose Mani and Amelia Birch cross paths in Sydney this week.
But the truth is luck has nothing to do with it.
When the three business owners come together to present Ashli Rose Wines and Iron Pot Bay Vineyard at Newtown's Famelia Wine Bar + Bottleshop on Thursday evening, it will mark three years of damned hard work.
Milestones not just achieved by women. Milestones achieved for women.
Birch's grit and graft put Famelia on the Sydney food and wine map in mid-2023. That's when the former restaurant sommelier and mother of two teenage boys opened her bijou bar and bottleshop in Enmore Road. She then began spruiking the exceptional contributions being made by women in wine in Australia.
Three years on, her Famelia business continues to feature wines made exclusively by women.
Along the way, Birch's affirmative action has not only helped create valuable connections between wine producers and consumers, it's spawned the development of a distinctly different community hub.
Famelia is now a place where people regularly come together to share wine, food and experiences that celebrate achievements of key players that Birch believes are undervalued by the industry.
"I am embarrassed to say that women make up a measly 17 percent of winemaking roles and 21.5 percent of viticulture roles in the Australian wine industry, and face far higher barriers to entry than their male counterparts," she muses.
Birch attended a Slow Wine Fair in Bologna back in February where it was reported that 30 percent of Italian wineries were led by women.
She says women here experience a blatant lack of opportunities based on their gender.
"Women are already making exceptional wine across Australia, and around the world," Birch adds.
"What remains unequal is the visibility, recognition and opportunity afforded to them. Until the wine industry can represent fair and equitable parity, acceptance and safe working conditions for women, I will continue to focus on featuring women winemakers, women-led wineries, and woman+ teams."
The figures Birch mentions come from a 2024 report by Wine Australia that studied women in the Australian wine sector. Some 2,190 wineries were surveyed.
Not only was the quoted data correct at the time, the report also noted the Australian Taxation Office estimated women in winemaking roles were earning, on average, $14,000 less per year than their male counterparts.
Women viticulturists, on average, were earning $18,500 less per annum.
As an aside, the report indicated that the Tasmanian wine industry faired better than the industry nationally on three key metrics. The participation rates of female CEOs, winemakers and viticulturists were all higher than average, especially for female winemakers (23 percent vs 16.7 percent).
Birch's decision to become a strident women's advocate may well have presented her new business with plenty of risks but three years on the rewards have been both welcome and significant. Famelia currently enjoys an exceptional rating of 4.9 out of 5 on the renowned restaurant booking platform OpenTable.
The venture also received two glasses in the Australian Wine List of the Year Awards published in September 2025.
The annual awards were announced after an independent panel of high-profile, expert judges spent months evaluating restaurant and bar wine lists across the country. Their assessments included scores for content, balance, pricing, presentation, and how well each list matches the venue's food quality and style.
Two glasses awards acknowledge list excellence, 'signifying a thoughtful, high-quality, and well-curated drinks program.'
The Newtown list comprised 180 wines, 15 of them available by the glass. All made by women.
Famelia's success in the longstanding national wine list awards might have raised a few eyebrows, but Birch is quick to underscore the acknowledgement.
"In my experience, women have to put in 200 percent effort to be noticed and respected, so wine made by women – as well as food produced by women – already has a really high standard."
It's been three years since Ashli Rose Mani took on her twin viticulture and winemaking roles at Iron Pot Bay.
The 5.5ha vineyard at Rowella in the Tamar Valley has been in the hands of the Mani family since 2013. It was first planted by Launceston couple Roderick Cuthbert and Kyra Hinman back in 1988.
With contract winemaker Andrew Hood working his winery magic in the south of the State, Iron Pot Bay became a pioneer of unwooded Chardonnay during the 1990s in Tasmania.
After Hinman's untimely death in 1995, Cuthbert was later joined in the business by former farm girl and classroom teacher Mary Dufour.
Julieanne and Ashok Mani entered the picture when they discovered the 81-year-old vineyard founder and his partner had decided it was time to retire and allow a new generation of growers onto the property.
"We jumped into vineyard management with no previous experience at all," Julieanne Mani explains.
"We'd only just returned to the State after living in the US for 17 years. We were looking for a new business opportunity and this was it."
The vineyard today grows Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.
Ashli and her younger brother Liam grew up around the property's vines and wines. School holidays were more likely to be trips around the vineyard than trips to far away places or fun in the sun.
It seemed only a matter of time before one or both kids were bitten by the wine bug.
The Manis did their fair share of vineyard chores as teenagers, but it was Ashli that decided her career path should lead into the wine industry. Indeed, the path led further than that. To New Zealand.
Between 2018 and 2021, Mani lived in Canterbury, studying at Lincoln University. On returning home from graduation with a Bachelor of Viticulture and Oenology, she worked vintage at Josef Chromy Wines (2022), then Utzinger Wines (2023).
Mani's elevation to Iron Pot Bay viticulturist and winemaker in 2023 introduced a new and complementary range of products to her family's portfolio. Ashli Rose Wines.
There are no winemaking facilities on the 12ha Rowella site. The vineyard's small, hand-picked crops are typically harvested between late February and late April and then trucked to the Arnold family's Ghost Rock winery at Northdown, outside Devonport.
The 70km road trip takes just over an hour. That's hardly detrimental to fruit quality in cool-climate Tasmania, Mani adds.
The newbie winemaker struck pay-dirt right off the bat. Her 2023 Ashli Rose Riesling won gold at the 2024 Tasmanian Wine Show.
The 2026 Tasmanian Wine Show saw the 2025 Ashli Rose Riesling figure among the three wines awarded a gold medal in the hotly-contested current vintage class.
The 2017 Iron Pot Bay Vineyard Sparkling 'Homeward Bound' also won gold in its class at the event, while the striking 2025 Ashli Rose 'Fieldes Blend' Rosé earned a silver in its class.
Birch says this Thursday's Winemaker Tasting Event at Famelia will focus on the generational dimensions of owning and operating a cool-climate vineyard.
"Julieanne has helped shape Iron Pot Bay into the family vineyard and cellar door it is today, while Ashli is building on that foundation through her own small-batch label, making wines from the fruit she grew up around and now helps farm herself.
"They'll be pouring six wines and sharing stories about life in Rowella, about working together as mother and daughter, and what it means to carry a family vineyard into its next chapter."
Needless to say, guests are also bound to hear of the trials and tribulations of Tasmania's tricky 2026 vintage.
When industry body Wine Tasmania released its annual vintage report in mid-July, it noted that following a record-breaking 23,002 tonnes in 2025, 'the 2026 vintage will be remembered for its scarcity at just 11,163 tonnes, roughly equating to around 10 million bottles.'
The upside is that Tasmanian wine producers are celebrating the exceptional quality, intense flavours and vibrant freshness of the 2026 vintage.
Unusually cool weather, strong winds, ill-timed rain events and even a brief November hailstorm meant that it was a very challenging year at Rowella.
"Vintage began around four weeks later than normal," Mani says.
"I'm really pleased with how our 2026 Riesling is looking at the moment. We bottled our aromatics a bit over a week ago and our first tasting was really good. Very promising. It might be our best Riesling to date."
Ultra-small bunch sizes and generally sporadic fruit-set meant this year's Gewürztraminer and Pinot Gris did not yield sufficient volumes to justify their place in the family's 2026 portfolio.
The vineyard's Chardonnay has been allocated to traditional method sparkling wine production this year. A very smart Blanc de Blancs is expected to be woken from its slumbers in another three or four years' time.
Indeed, good fizz will be the order of the day in coming months and years. Mani says her new Pet Nat should be labelled and packaged sometime in October.
Thursday's Sydney event will have other vintage news to share.
Tickets are still available for purchase here.
The cost is $66 per person. Phone 0423 134 973 for further details.
Last page update: 19 August 2026