After spending ten years as a wine waiter at one of Sydney’s most iconic restaurants Café Sydney on Circular Quay overlooking Sydney Harbour, Lachlan Bisset is enjoying his tree change mission to showcase the quality and diversity of Beechworth wines.
Lachlan and his parents Peter and Cecily have been at the helm of boutique store Cellar Door Wine Store in Beechworth for the past three years, showcasing the region’s wine given very few local wineries have cellar doors open to the public.
“I think only six out of 32 wineries have a cellar door, very few so we like to represent the local wines as best we can,” Lachlan said.
“We’ve got incredible producers in the region. A lot of young producers who are ahead of the curve in terms of where the trends are going, not entrenched in all the adulation and not doing something because their great- great grandfathers did it. They do it because they’re passionate and love it.
“They don’t quite have the facilities or the time themselves to showcase their wines to the public, but they make incredible products that are well worth standing behind, so it’s really nice to be part of that process.”
The family have revealed exciting plans, including purchasing the premises next door that will expand the venue to likely offer Mediterranean or Moroccan style food, while downstairs there’ll be a unique offering when they restore historic 1850’s cellars for tasting rooms and events.
“A number of winemakers are desperate to do not just current new releases, but also back to back tastings of the different evolutions of their wines and people have told us they will travel from anywhere to come to some of these events,” Lachlan said.
“We have two rooms with fireplaces where we’ll have light, easy and more intimate tasting areas and chill out areas. The larger room will be a more drawn out structured tasting area. In that lovely long room we’ll also be able to line up some tastings for groups or individuals.”
Lachlan says Beechworth winemakers are unafraid to try new styles, but are also well regarded for putting a unique twist on some classics.
“We’re primarily a Chardonnay region and we do a broad variety, old school big, bold, I would call red nose style wine to big oaky robust Chardonnay that you really get splinters from, to your crisp, cleaner styles and everything in between.
“Some beautiful Rieslings, magnificent cool climate Shiraz which really stands on its own two feet – genuinely elegant, structured and flavoursome without being all in your face, so a lot of cool climate reds in particular are incredibly elegant and approachable.”
For more on what’s planned visit: https://www.beechworthwines.com/
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