Sailor Seeks Horse
Gilli & Paul Lipscombe
Sailor Seeks Horse - Huon Valley
Driven to make great Pinot Noir, Gilli and Paul searched for five years to find the right place for them, and landed in the Huon Valley in Tasmania. In short time, they’ve been racking up big accolades for their Pinot.
Having met in the UK in 2005, our journey began with the decision to change our lives and work in something we loved – wine. After testing that decision by working vintage in the Languedoc and deciding that the long-term plan was to find a great Pinot Noir site in Australia, we moved to Margaret River to study at Curtin University and work at the same time.
Gilli joined Xanadu for the 2006 vintage under Glenn Goodall and worked there in the cellar and vineyard until 2010. The Rathbone Wine Group had recently acquired Xanadu and had renewed its focus on quality, which provided Gilli with invaluable experience.
Paul worked the 2007 and 2008 vintages at Devil’s Lair in the cellar, combined with vineyard work at Xanadu in the interim and then joined Woodlands Wines in the vineyard from 2008 until 2010. At Woodlands the key lesson was the importance of site and the understanding of that site in a global wine context.
Overseas vintages at Beaux Freres and Chehalem in Oregon and Mt Difficulty in Central Otago allowed us to learn about Pinot Noir in cool climates from industry leaders.
Our objective was always to learn as much as we possibly could about winemaking, viticulture and Pinot Noir before we bought a vineyard. In 2010, on our way to work for Winemaking Tasmania, we saw a dilapidated vineyard for sale in a region we thought had the potential to be one of the world’s greatest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay regions – the Huon Valley. We bought the vineyard and then started making wine for Home Hill in 2011.
During our time working for Home Hill, their Pinot Noirs have won an increasing number of wine show trophies that recently culminated in the 2014 Reserve winning the Jimmy Watson trophy at the Royal Melbourne Wine Show. We have released two vintages (2013 & 2014) of Sailor Seeks Horse Pinot Noir and are about to release our debut Chardonnay (2015). We planted 4 different Dijon clones of Chardonnay in 2011 and can’t wait to get the wine out into the market. If you like briney Chardonnay, you’ll like this.
Our philosophy when it comes to viticulture and winemaking is to always question what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. We’re not dogmatic about our practices but the default position is minimal intervention. Less is always more.
From here our hope is to drive the increasing quality and perception of Tasmanian wine. We would like to help cement the Huon Valley’s reputation as a world-class region for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay production.
Sailor Seeks Horse - Huon Valley
Driven to make great Pinot Noir, Gilli and Paul searched for five years to find the right place for them, and landed in the Huon Valley in Tasmania. In short time, they’ve been racking up big accolades for their Pinot.
Having met in the UK in 2005, our journey began with the decision to change our lives and work in something we loved – wine. After testing that decision by working vintage in the Languedoc and deciding that the long-term plan was to find a great Pinot Noir site in Australia, we moved to Margaret River to study at Curtin University and work at the same time.
Gilli joined Xanadu for the 2006 vintage under Glenn Goodall and worked there in the cellar and vineyard until 2010. The Rathbone Wine Group had recently acquired Xanadu and had renewed its focus on quality, which provided Gilli with invaluable experience.
Paul worked the 2007 and 2008 vintages at Devil’s Lair in the cellar, combined with vineyard work at Xanadu in the interim and then joined Woodlands Wines in the vineyard from 2008 until 2010. At Woodlands the key lesson was the importance of site and the understanding of that site in a global wine context.
Overseas vintages at Beaux Freres and Chehalem in Oregon and Mt Difficulty in Central Otago allowed us to learn about Pinot Noir in cool climates from industry leaders.
Our objective was always to learn as much as we possibly could about winemaking, viticulture and Pinot Noir before we bought a vineyard. In 2010, on our way to work for Winemaking Tasmania, we saw a dilapidated vineyard for sale in a region we thought had the potential to be one of the world’s greatest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay regions – the Huon Valley. We bought the vineyard and then started making wine for Home Hill in 2011.
During our time working for Home Hill, their Pinot Noirs have won an increasing number of wine show trophies that recently culminated in the 2014 Reserve winning the Jimmy Watson trophy at the Royal Melbourne Wine Show. We have released two vintages (2013 & 2014) of Sailor Seeks Horse Pinot Noir and are about to release our debut Chardonnay (2015). We planted 4 different Dijon clones of Chardonnay in 2011 and can’t wait to get the wine out into the market. If you like briney Chardonnay, you’ll like this.
Our philosophy when it comes to viticulture and winemaking is to always question what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. We’re not dogmatic about our practices but the default position is minimal intervention. Less is always more.
From here our hope is to drive the increasing quality and perception of Tasmanian wine. We would like to help cement the Huon Valley’s reputation as a world-class region for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay production.
