Waurn Ponds Estate Winemaker - Dr Duncan McGillivery

THE WINEMAKER

Microbiologist turned winemaker, Dr Duncan McGillivery, worked in a number of top flight wineries overseas prior to plying his trade at Hardy Wine Company.

His extensive background in industrial microbiology includes the successful leadership of international biotechnology projects which resulted in the award of International and Australian biotechnology Patents.

Following on from a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Postdoctoral Fellowship he took up a position as US Government Wine Microbiology Expert.

Duncan’s philosophy is that you can never ‘own’ intellectual property, the product of research, but he strives hard to ensure that everything that goes into producing wine, from start to finish, is captured in the bottle for later enjoyment – and that includes his extensive knowledge and skills crafted from a lifetime’s involvement in the wine industry.

Winemaking is controlling microbial populations, but apart from this, it offers the perfect combination of art and science, marrying traditional old world and new world technology.

From this corporate winemaking background where making quality wines for the world was the norm, he then moved to Geelong to establish the vineyards and winery at Waurn Ponds Estate.
Together with winery manager Nyall Condon the wine science program at Deakin University has landed winemakers on their feet all over the world.

Waurn Ponds Estate vineyards are already showing promise to be amongst the flagship wines of the region.

Duncan's family has a background in agriculture and whisky, he loves the sea, wooden boats and sparkling wine. He’s eagerly awaiting the winery’s first sparkling wine, a blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, which is due for release in about June 2009 after spending 18 months in bottle.

And the dog in the photo? That’s Gem, his regular companion around the winery.