Neil Prentice is an iconoclast, making a range of eccentric wines and raising wagyu cattle on his property at the foot of Mt BawBaw in Gippsland. Not all his wines are wild, however, as this pristine and elegant sparkling wine shows. Named after his wife Maree, this is a dry, aperitif-style sparkling wine made mostly from Pinot Noir with a touch of Chardonnay. It embodies balance and finesse and yet is generously flavoured, with notes of aromas of baked apple pie, nectarine and white grapefruit. A magical match with oysters, sashimi or lightly grilled prawns.

Moondara is the brainchild of Neil Prentice, one of Walhalla’s more eccentric winemakers. Not that eccentricity is by any means a bad thing in the wine industry; indeed, it is from the oddballs and lone voices that most of the interesting and groundbreaking produce of the wine world comes. To give you an example of Moondara’s singular vision and sense of humour, just take a look at the name of their leading Pinot Noir - ‘Conception’ - so-called, due to the fact that Prentice’s eldest son was conceived in the middle of the vineyard. Nice! It isn’t all jokes and oddities, though. Moondara is a leading winery in the field of natural, zero intervention viticulture, and is blazing a trail throughout this scene due to the determination and dedication the vintners have; dedication for producing highly characterful wines packed full of features, which really could only come from this corner of the planet. Prentice and his brood proudly state that their vines have never seen a single chemical fertiliser, have never been irrigated, and are cropped and trimmed as infrequently as possible. Why? Because this winery is on a personal mission to produce wines which contain the very essence of the land the grapes are grown on, and are full of expression and unique features, with nothing lost along the way.