Yarra Valley's Serrat viticulturist takes out Halliday Wine Companion Award

Managing a vineyard and producing good quality wine comes down to many planets aligning at once, says wine-maker Tom Carson from Serrat wines in the Yarra Valley.

“The secret to good wine is having a good vineyard site, a good bit of dirt in the right region with the right soil type,” he says.

“It needs to be facing the right way and set up with attention to detail and managed all year round.”

Last week, Carson was named the 2023 Halliday Wine Companion Awards viticulturist of the year, acknowledged for his best practice in the vineyard.

“We only get one crack at winemaking a year,” he says. “A bottle is two years’ worth of work – it’s one in the vineyard and one in the winery.

“We don’t segment the jobs here either, for us the process is more as wine growers.  We work to produce the best possible wine from the best possible grapes we can grow and go from there.”

Carson planted his first hectare in the Yarra Valley in 2001 with his French-born wife Nadège, trusting their instincts with pinot noir, chardonnay, viognier and grenache.

Today they manage more than 3.6 hectares, with 1.2 hectares dedicated to pinot noir, and employ the technique of close planting which is common in Europe.

They have planted 8800 vines per hectare, which is more than more than four times the Australian average. One vine produces just one bottle of wine.

It’s all about minimal intervention and trusting their intuition, given the team’s decades of experience.

“We’re a tiny vineyard with only four of us running it,” Carson says. “It’s a job you get better at.

“But it’s also important to have good intuition about how the vintage will turn out. It’s about looking at the weather and assessing how the vines are growing.

“The more vintages you do the more experience you have and it helps with the decisions you make.  Experience definitely gives you the confidence to make the right call.”

Serrat’s last gong at the Halliday Wine Companion Awards was in 2016, when it won wine of the year for its 2014 shiraz viognier.

In addition to Carson’s win as viticulurist of the year, Serrat was also shortlisted for winery of the year, grenache of the year for its 2021 grenache noir and shiraz of the year for its 2021 Serrat shiraz viognier.

“To be nominated in a number of categories and win in one is amazing,” Carson says. “It’s a great recognition for the 20-plus years of work that has gone into Serrat.”

He describes his love of the vineyard as one bordering on obsession, and not just at Serrat – he also works with Yabby Lake on the Mornington Peninsula.

Over the decades he’s also worked in the Clare Valley – where he met his wife, who was undertaking masters studies – and the French regions of Burgundy and Champagne.

“After I finished my wine degree, I went to France for a few vintages,” Carson says. “It was great to get right into it.

“I love the wine-growing history of France and their commitment over there – it’s generational and it’s a craft. I was totally hooked from that moment.

“But it’s also the site that is the hero and, as the wine-maker, you try to stand in the background and let the quality come through the bottle.”