Joadja Vineyards is one of the oldest established wineries in the Southern Highlands. The story of how it all began - the pain, the passion, the work and the worry serves as an inspiration to the growing number of winegrowers and makers just starting out.
In the last 17 years Kim and Frances Mogine have seen it all - not enough rain, too much rain, late frosts and unseasonally mild temperatures.
To describe them as committed in their quest to produce high quality cool climate wines from a boutique winery is an understatement.
It all began after Kim, a winemaker since leaving school, returned from a trip to America where he visited Oregon and Washington and saw cool climate wines being produced.
“I saw small boutique wineries grow high quality grapes in cool regions and I thought we should be doing this in Australia.
“As soon as I got back I started looking for a wet, cool area close to Sydney,” Kim said.
Kim and Frances searched for three years before finally deciding on their 21 acres at Joadja.
They made their purchase at the end of 1983 and moved down here when Frances secured a full time job as an occupational therapist.
There was never any question that one of them would have to work full-time - they knew it would be years before they could make the winery self-supporting.
“We planted slowly and built the winery slowly. We didn’t want to borrow much money so we decided to build the business as we could,” said Frances.
The first vines were planted in 1984 and the winery was built in 1990. They sold their first bottles of wine in 1991.
Joadja Winery started retailing in August 1992 and is now open seven days a week.
The winery now supports Kim full time, Frances a few days a week, a full-time winemaking student, a part-time biochemist and a vineyard hand.
Joadja Winery grows chardonnay and sauvignon blanc white varieties and cabernet sauvignon and malbec red varieties.
Joadja not only makes its own wine but wine for other individual growers and is one of only three local wineries offering cellar door sales.
They have sold their wine internationally and have many repeat customers.
“It’s difficult to decide how you measure success,” Frances said.
“Winning medals is important as well as being able to run a profitable business which supports the family, to get good reviews from industry experts and to have a lot of return customers,” she said.
While Kim and Frances Mogine were certainly the pioneer winemakers in the Southern Highlands they by no means want to keep it all to themselves.
“We like having lots of vignerons in the region - it’s changed our position from being a small oddball winery in the middle of nowhere to an established boutique winery in an emerging wine district,” Kim said.
“It also gives us an opportunity to advise other vignerons and to make wine for individual growers,” he said.
So what advice would the Mogine’s give winemakers just starting out.
“Choose your site carefully, plant varieties for the future and never underestimate the complexities of growing grapes in a cool wet climate.”
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