Meet the team. You won’t find any wine snobs at Tallis Wine. That’s not because we aren’t serious about our business and the quality of the wines we produce - we are! We just don’t take ourselves (or each other) too seriously. We are a bunch of wine lovers who have come together, committed to making a good drop … and we manage to have a good laugh at the same time. Here is the Tallis Wine Tribe:
Coming from a family with several generations of farming history behind them, Dick completed an Agricultural Engineering degree at The University of Melbourne before returning to the farm. Always fond of a good red, Dick decided in 1997 that it would be fun to plant a few grapevines. However, his brother Mark (a business analyst) convinced him not too muck around with a few vines but to plant 10ha – a much more economically viable number! This dalliance became more serious when he realized the potential of the incredible Dookie soil and the perfect vineyard slope. So Tallis Wine was born.
Incredibly easy going, Dick says yes to almost every new idea his team comes up with, which is why the Tallis Wine range is expanding so rapidly. How he manages to create such great wines while completing his winemaking studies (nearly there) and running a broad acre farming business we don’t know, but somehow it seems to happen!
Fuelled by a love of food and wine from her marketing role with King Island Dairy, Alice is the ideas person behind Tallis Wine. Born and raised in Tasmania, Alice married Dick and moved to Dookie in 1993 and now it looks like the Dookie dirt is in her blood! We love her enthusiasm and free thinking approach to Tallis Wine and she keeps us busy with her fabulous brainstorming sessions. She can often be found with scissors and paper in hand, creating a new label or ‘table talker’ How Alice manages to be a mother of three, run a business, and play such an active role in the Dookie community is unbelievable. These days Dick makes a hasty exit when he hears Alice say “I’ve just thought of a great idea for Tallis Wine”.
Andrea keeps the Tallis Wine office running smoothly and ensures that you get your newsletter, updates and orders on time. Originally from Red Cliffs, Andrea moved to Shepparton in 1987 married a local farmer Alex and after 10 years of kinder teaching, decided on a career change – we’re so glad she did. Now after 4 years at Tallis Wine Andrea keeps the office ticking over. Regularly referred to as “she who must be obeyed”, Andrea is very practical and a great sounding board. She keeps the Tallis team on track and when we get carried away with hair-brain ideas she settles us down. Nothing is too much trouble for Andrea so if you have any queries regarding your Tallis wine order, just give her a call.
Max’s position as Vineyard Manager evolved after 10 years working on the Tallis property with Dick. Worth at least two men, Max’s passion and dedication in the vineyard has seen the quality of the fruit coming from our vines improve year after year. While Max still loves a cold beer after a day in the vineyard, his appreciation of wine has grown. He tries to hide his wine knowledge but we know he has a great palate.
Pete is Richard’s dad and one of the nicest men you are ever likely to meet. Apart from his wife Mary, his first love is the Dookie dirt (which he tells our children is better than chocolate) and his second is wine (particularly ours). Because Pete is so passionate about everyone being able to have the opportunity to taste Tallis Wine he has agreed to look after our customers in the Benalla district and to find some new ones. We hope you get to meet him one day as he is very special.
Fate was extremely kind when she dropped Tanya into the Dookie district. How lucky were we, when we discovered that our new next door neighbour from Sydney had a fantastic palate and substantial wine knowledge! Tanya previously worked in buying for the Australian Wine Society and her passion for wine led her into a Wine Science degree, which, like Dick, she also finishes soon. She also likes to dabble in wine show judging at both the Cowra Wine Show and at the local Dookie Wine Show. These days, Tanya is helping Richard with winemaking and Alice with marketing. We often think … what would we do without Tanya?
When he’s not overseeing production at Campbell’s Soup, James can usually be found in the kitchen creating gourmet treats for family and friends. After sampling some of his offerings we offered him a job on the spot. He is quite bossy in the kitchen so we tend to let him do his own thing. We hope you will also enjoy some of his food and wine matches.