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On March 3rd 2025, Mark Allen, the Drinks Columnist at the Australian Financial Review wrote an article titled "Wine pioneer looking for new blood to preserve vineyard tradition" where he writes about how, after 4 decades of winemaking and running he cellar door at Nicholson River Winery, Ken Eckersley & his wife Juliet are selling up & unless they find a buyer, Nicholson River Chardonnay could become a thing of the past.
He goes on to report that Nicholson River’s chardonnay developed a huge reputation: the wine was voted most popular white at the Exhibition of Victorian Winemakers eight years in a row in the early 1990s.
A few years ago, he decided to move away from the style of chardonnay that established Nicholson River’s reputation: made from earlier-picked grapes, with little to no oak influence. “I changed my thinking,” he says. “I was looking for a wine to go with local fish and prawns.” He and Juliet even built a restaurant adjoining the cellar door.
“We got it finished in December 2019,” he says. “Great timing. We opened for two weeks in December 2019 and then the bushfires came, and then COVID came. We haven’t run it as a restaurant properly since: we do platters, have functions, the occasional wedding.”
Not surprisingly, it’s all just become too hard. Eckersley made the decision last year to stop making wine and instead sell his grapes to other winemakers across Gippsland until someone buys the vineyard and winery.
He then goes on to taste the wines and here are his reviews ...
2018 Nicholson River NR Chardonnay [Gippsland]
The last vintage of a distinctive Victorian style. Picked ripe (the wine is 14 per cent alcohol), barrel fermented in 40 per cent new oak, full malo. Bold yellow colour, full of sunshiny flavour, vanilla complexity, rich but tangy in the mouth, finishing mellow and long. The antithesis of modern, lean, minerally chardonnay. Tastes bolder and riper than its 12.7 per cent alcohol would indicate. There are only a few dozen cases left at the cellar door and then it’ll be gone. $58
2023 Nicholson River Unwooded Chardonnay [Gippsland]
Still a nicely textural chardonnay – this goes through full malo, too, like the NR chardonnay – but with none of the oak influence. Fresh, peachy yellow fruit, some lemon citrus notes, nice balance and liveliness. As Ken Eckersley says, just the thing you want with some flathead or whiting fresh off the boat in nearby Lakes Entrance. $26
2015 Nicholson River Botrytis Semillon [Gippsland]
Unlike most botrytis semillons, which can be very sweet and unctuous – especially after a decade in bottle – this is only slightly sweet, relying instead on alcohol (14 per cent) and strong botrytis for its rich, apricot-y, nutty complexity. More a cheese wine than a dessert wine. Also coming to the end of its run: at the time of publication, only a few cases are left at the cellar door. 375ml $22
You can read the full artice here ... (https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/food-and-wine/wine-pioneer-looking-for-new-blood-to-preserve-vineyard-tradition-20250225-p5lezy)
Alternately, we have a pdf of the article here ... PDF: Wine pioneer looking for new blood to preserve vineyard tradition.
