Duncan Lowe

Job description: Winemaker and Leo's Personal Assistant

What does your job entail?

Transforming our delicious dry grown fruit into the best quality wine possible by using traditional techniques such as wild fermentation and open fermenters, quality French oak and minimal fining.

How long have you been working at RFV?

I was the assistant winemaker for RFV from 2011 until the end of vintage 2013. In 2014 vintage I had the opportunity to be the winemaker and create the style of wine I enjoy.

What did you do before joining RFV?

I started in the wine industry straight after high school. I studied my degree off campus while working at the Mount Langi Ghiran in the Grampians. From there I have been fortunate to work with some amazing winemakers including Brokenwood and Bannockburn Vineyards.

Best part of the job?

VINTAGE! Vintage is the crazy time of the year where most of the big decisions are made, what time to pick, when to press, what to add, what not to add. It involves long days covered in sticky grape juice and continues cleaning but the beer at the end of the day never tastes better. It is a lot of fun.

Worst part of the job?

It really is hard to find a down side to my job. I have found the perfect balance between my love for science without being stuck in a lab with a white coat and my passion to build and create something that I can share and enjoy with family and friends.

Words of Wisdom

My first lecture for my wine science degree was titled ‘It’s all in the glass’. The lecturer emphasised over an over that whatever you do from deciding to pick the grapes right up until you put the wine in a bottle it all boils down to the first glass that will be poured from the bottle.

Over the years I have realised how important that lecture was. Most of our wines will be consumed at a wine bar, restaurant or at home, there will not be a sales person telling the consumer how amazing our vineyards are or how much effort we put into making that glass of wine. The wine has to speak for itself, it has to draw you in so much that you want to know more about it and were it came from and of course it needs to be yummy.

Every time I taste my wines I remember that first lecture and before I bottle a wine I always ask myself is it all in the glass?