“[I’M]JUST
TRYING TO
FINDA WINE
IT CAME
FRO M .”VALLEE DU VENOM, WA
RHYS PARKERAs a teenager, Rhys Parker would lend a hand on his mate’s
family vineyard in the Swan Valley. But, beyond a tannin-stained
summer job, the idea of making wine for a living never gripped
him. That was until life behind a desk as an environmental
scientist began to lose its air-conditioned lustre.
“I needed to get back outside and I saw winemaking as a way
to combine science and the environment,” he says, adding that
the surf in WA’s southwest might have provided a further nudge.
Parker’s Dunsborough-based operation, Vallée du Venom, is
only in its fourth vintage, but already has been earmarked as one
to watch. Last year the label won the Young Guns of Wine Best
New Act thanks to a pet-nat and a red Parker describes as
‘ambitious’. “The odds are I should have messed that wine up
terribly, but it worked out okay,” he jokes.
As is popular these days, Vallée du Venom is a minimal-
intervention enterprise, but rather than an ambition to be
fashionable, Parker says he’s “just trying to make a wine that
represents the vineyard it came from.” His low-fi approach
comes from a sense of responsibility to the environment and a
decision to remove, rather than add, chemicals. “I find growers
who grow organically or minimise the use of chemicals. It’s in line
with my ethos of winemaking,” says Parker.
Apart from striving to make wine “I can just bloody sell”,
Parker is in the process of converting a Dunsborough warehouse
into a winery. So watch this space.@vallee_du_venom
delicious.com.au 9