Early Beginnings
Keith and Amanda established this wine enterprise in 1997, initially crafting the inaugural ‘The Kester’ Shiraz in the 1998 vintage. Expanding on the success of this wine, they introduced Hunter Semillon for the first time in the 2000 harvest, followed by Hunter Valley Chardonnay in 2001. Drawing from Keith’s extensive winemaking expertise gained from his work in the Australian and international wine industry, as well as access to exceptional grapes from Hunter Valley vineyards, they embarked on producing premium wines under their own name and philosophy.
These releases received high acclaim from James Halliday, who remarked: “I have never been more impressed with initial releases of wines than I was with those under the Keith Tulloch label. The only drawback is their limited production scale, akin to Jeffrey Grosset in his early days. The same meticulous attention to detail, the same intellectually disciplined approach, the same insistence on nothing less than the best.”
During the initial years, Keith crafted the wines in a leased winery space, while Amanda managed the marketing operations from their home office. It was not until 2005 that they unveiled their tasting room at 972 Hermitage Road, located upstairs in the former ‘Hunter Ridge’ winery, making Keith Tulloch Wines accessible to the public for the first time. As the popularity of Keith Tulloch Wine soared, Keith and Amanda set their sights on creating their own vineyard, winery, and cellar door estate, aiming to elevate their wine business to new heights.
In 2008, they acquired the ‘Field of Mars’ vineyard at 989 Hermitage Road, which was followed by the construction of a state-of-the-art winemaking facility, cellar door, and restaurant. This new facility opened its doors to the public in September 2011, solidifying Keith Tulloch Wine’s foundation.
Keith Tulloch Wine
Since 2011, our range of exceptional wines from the Hunter Valley and NSW has been meticulously crafted at our renowned vineyard and winery estate on Hermitage Road. Here, visitors can indulge in wine tastings while overlooking the picturesque vineyards, which yield some of our finest single block and single vineyard wines. Although Keith Tulloch Wine has experienced growth, we remain a family-owned vineyard and winery. This allows us the freedom to create wines imbued with a distinctive personality, potency, and integrity. Our approach veers away from the mainstream, embracing an individual style and artistic flair.
Presently, Keith collaborates with his father, who happily retired, at our Estate, while his wife, Amanda, serves as the General Manager. Two of their children, Alisdair and Jessica, contribute to wine production and event management, respectively. Our ultimate goal is to work as a family, cultivating the finest fruits for our wines in a sustainable and ecologically mindful manner.
Our guiding ethic is ‘good, better, best.’
In the vineyard, this ethos revolves around upholding the farmer’s mandate. We continuously enhance the quality of our land, surpassing our own standards and achieving better results with each passing year.
Within the winery, this philosophy manifests as a commitment to explore and embrace new production ideas, experiment with novel concepts and techniques during each vintage, and venture into the cellar in search of fresh and captivating elements of character and style. Our objective is to continuously improve and refine our craft while honoring the region’s finest traditions.
The result? Wines that seamlessly blend concentration and elegance, subtlety and expressiveness, intellectual depth and hedonistic pleasure.
Keith Tulloch Wine proudly holds the distinction of being the first certified Carbon Neutral winery in the Hunter Valley. Our winery and wines are certified under the Australian Government’s esteemed ‘Climate Active’ program.
This certification attests to our business and wines generating zero net emissions from grape to glass. We have achieved this through a range of sustainability initiatives, including:
- Establishing a 65kw solar array that supplies the majority of our power
- Adopting waste management practices that prioritize recycling paper, cardboard, aluminum, and plastic
- Eliminating single-use plastics by embracing biodegradable or recyclable alternatives
- Transitioning all lighting to energy-efficient LED, reducing electricity consumption
- Implementing efficient plumbed CO2 lines for wine storage, minimizing CO2 waste
- Utilizing an electric forklift charged with solar power, reducing the use of LPG
- Incorporating new winery and irrigation processes and fittings to optimize water usage
- Exclusively employing organic fertilizers in the vineyard, recycling chicken manure, and avoiding chemical fertilizers
- Cultivating Winter cover crops in the vineyard’s midrows to enhance soil nitrogen and carbon fixation
- Tracking and reporting sustainability metrics through the Australian Wine Research Institute’s ENTWINE program
For the emissions we cannot eliminate, we offset them by purchasing carbon offsets. Presently, our carbon offsets include reforestation projects in the Brazilian Amazon and solar power initiatives in developing countries.
We actively engage in programs and plans to further reduce our emissions whenever possible. At the estate, we eagerly embrace and test new technologies and processes, always striving to push the boundaries of sustainable winemaking.
