GRAPE AFFECTION

With fertile soil and natural access to water, this winery’s garden in Victoria is now a source of inspiration for the next generation.

- Elizabeth Wilson

Alister, Rosa and Matt Purbrick enjoy a late afternoon tipple, an organic wine made under the Minimum label, a collaboration between Alister, Matt and Matt’s wife, Lentil. Matt’s border collie Pepper sits at his feet. The walls of the house are covered in creeping fig (Ficus pumila). OPPOSITE More creeping fig climbs over the pergola beams, creating a shady green tunnel at the side of the house.

Every day, Alister Purbrick feels fortunate to follow in the footsteps of his forebears. As a third-generation winemaker at Tahbilk Winery, in the Nagambie region of Victoria, he feels the strong reverberations of his family’s legacy every time he tends the vineyards. “This place is part of my fabric,” says Alister.

The Purbrick property is naturally blessed. Located 90 minutes north of Melbourne, on the banks of the Goulburn River, it sits on rich river flats, enjoying 11km of river frontage on one side, with an anabranch of the river on the other. It’s also home to a vast network of billabongs and lagoons. “We’re on 3000 acres (1200 hectares) of land, surrounded by water,” Alister says.

The name of the property is derived from the local DuangWurrung word ‘tabilk-tabilk’, meaning ‘place of many waterholes’, and it was already named when Alister’s grandfather, Eric Purbrick, bought the property in 1931.