Tamburlaine Organic Wines has accounted the appointment of a new winemaker who will head up the company’s winemaking in Orange.
Andrew Higgins has now joined the business as Head of Winemaking for the Orange region. Higgins’ background includes 18 years at McWilliams, where he rose through the ranks to become Chief Winemaker until the company’s recent sale. His experience has also been accumulated on an international scale, with technical skills learned in France and the US.
“I am super excited with the opportunity of coming on board in a lead role with the Tamburlaine winemaking team,” Higgins said.
“The diversity and breadth of the vineyards and viticulture knowledge puts the company in a great position to continue to be a leader in the organic and overall ‘better for you’ wine space. The medium bodied wines coming out of altitude NSW regions are of excellent quality and perfectly balanced for a multitude of cuisines. I’m really looking forward to working with the winery team at Cudal to craft award winning wines out of these cool climate sites.”
Higgins joins a growing pool of winemaking talent at Tamburlaine, which Managing Director Mark Davidson said is the strongest team he’s worked with in his 37-year career. The team includes Shannon Burgess-Moore (ex-De Iuliis), Will Gardender (ex-Australian Vintage Limited), Zoe Rudlin (ex-First Creek and Raffa Pacifici (ex-D’Abruzzo in Italy).
It’s an exciting time for the Tamburlaine business, after recently purchasing the ‘Boomey’ vineyard, which was previously part of the Cumulus operation. The property includes 507 hectares of vineyard to be used for Tamburlaine’s Central West operations.
“The vast majority of our wine production is now based in Orange. This is very different to the single-site, relatively small production winery I have previously operated,” Davidson said.
“To produce the best wine as well as the necessary production efficiency in a facility like Cudal requires particular skills and Andrew is a natural fit. Our ground-breaking work over the years involving organics, vegan fining agents and winemaking without added sulphur may be in part new to Andrew, but he instinctively understands how much the industry and consumers continue to change.”
Tamburlaine has been premiumising the Cudal winery it took over in 2019, something which Higgins will be continuing to focus on with winery upgrades and honing winemaking specifications.