OUR STORY … (SO FAR…)

Quid Pro Quo produces wines from the Canberra region and the Lower Hunter Valley.

A family-owned wine company - proudly boutique and proudly individualistic - our approach to wine-making reflects our deep commitment to quality and integrity in all steps of the process from vine to bottle. We care about the planet and use environmentally sustainable vineyard practices. We only select outstanding parcels of grapes for use in the wine-making process. And we apply both traditional and leading-edge techniques, in both our viticultural approach and our wine-making, to help craft wines of distinction.

In 2012, we initially started making our cool-climate wines from grapes sourced from leading growers in the Murrumbateman and Lake Bathurst areas near Canberra.
The Canberra District is widely recognised as one of the up-and-coming premium wine regions in Australia. Our wines from this area include our Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot, Shiraz/Viognier, Sangiovese and Riesling.

In 2015, we expanded to establish a new base of operations in the Broke/Fordwich sub-region of the Lower Hunter Valley, with a view to also making warmer-climate wines. The Lower Hunter Valley, in NSW, is Australia’s oldest and most famous premium wine region. Our property at Broke is a 140 acre site located near Sentry Rock, neighbouring some of the Valley’s best vineyards. Blessed with a beautiful aspect and excellent soils for viticulture, the site was originally planted last century to a wide variety of traditional Hunter Valley varieties, including Shiraz, Semillon, Chardonnay and Verdelho, with approximately 100 acres under vine at one point. However, as with vineyards in many parts of Australia, over a period of years the vines were removed as land-use priorities of the former owners changed.

We acquired the Broke property with the plan to develop a new and re-designed vineyard with an eye to the impact of climate change (that has seen increased dry spells and average temperatures rise notably over the last decade in the Hunter Valley). This impact carries with it, in our view, important implications for the grape varieties that are best-suited for the future in this area. In turn, this led to our decision to favour Mediterranean varieties – Sangiovese (4 clones), Primitivo, Nero D’Avola (2 clones), Negroamaro, Montepulciano and Fiano from Italy; Touriga Nacional from Portugal; and Gamay Noir and Grenache Noir from France – and a mix of Australian and French clones of Shiraz (3 clones), Chardonnay (6 clones) and Semillon (2 clones). Some of this is pioneering viticulture, but great care has been taken with the selection of exceptional clones of each variety to suit the soils and micro-climate, as well as with the type and use of rootstock or the decision to use own-root plantings. We place particular importance on clonal diversity in our wine-making and, where suitable, multiple clones of a variety have been planted. The site is blessed with an abundant supply of water and our vineyard incorporates special design techniques to ensure excellent airflow in vineyard rows – important for promoting grape quality, particularly in the Summer period in the Hunter - including short vineyard row sets, wider than standard row spacing, and a higher than standard setting for cordon wires. Some novel, double-vine techniques, have also been employed in some of the Italian grape variety plantings. More traditional single-vine plantings have been used in the other varieties. Pruning techniques include the selective use of second pruning on some later harvesting varieties.

Unique in design and state-of-the-art, we have recently acquired a suite of new fermentation tanks that were designed and manufactured in Australia. And only the highest quality French and Amercian oak are used in the maturation of our wines.

The rest … we happily leave to nature, good fortune, and the guidance and talent of the outstanding wine-makers that we have the privilege to work with.

Like all good things in life, wine is best enjoyed in moderation. Quid Pro Quo encourages the responsible consumption of alcohol.

We appreciate your support and interest in our venture, and hope you will enjoy our wines.