Our Story
The Team
Adam McKissack - Viticulturist and winemaker
Jacky Rowbotham - Cellar door wench and marketing guru (not!)
Pepsi & Mojo - Working hard at hardly working
We're Jacky and Adam, a husband-and-wife team who love family, good wine, and our two over-indulged cavoodles, Pepsi and Mojo. For years, while our kids were growing up, we talked about making a tree change. As they headed off to uni, those conversations became plans.
Adam enrolled in a Bachelor of Viticulture at Charles Sturt University and gained hands-on experience in Canberra's cool-climate wineries, while Jacky scoured the country for the right vineyard.
We've always been drawn to cool-climate wines so when we chanced upon Wedgetail Estate in the Nillumbik Hills on the western edge of the Yarra Valley, it felt like the perfect fit. In 2025 we swapped office jobs for vineyard life and became the new custodians of Wedgetail.
Our first year was spent renovating the cellar door, bringing tired equipment back to life and learning that farming always has a way of keeping you on your toes. In 2026 we released our first wines under the Wedgetail Estate name, the culmination of years of planning, learning and plenty of hard work, and one of the proudest moments of our lives.
As for Pepsi and Mojo, they've settled into vineyard life. There are rabbits to chase, plenty of quad bike rides and no shortage of pats from visitors.
The Vineyard
Wedgetail Estate is located in the Nillumbik hills on the western fringe of the Yarra Valley.
Our eight acre vineyard sits in a natural amphitheatre. At around 200 metres above sea level, the site enjoys a cool-climate growing season, while the vineyard's changing topography creates subtle differences in sunlight exposure, airflow and temperature across the site. The clay loam soils, laced with gravel, provide a balance of drainage and moisture retention, encouraging healthy vine growth and steady, even ripening.
Planted in 1994 on the site of a former plum orchard, the vineyard was laid out to work with the land rather than against it. Pinot Noir grows on the north-east slope, soaking up the morning sun and developing depth, perfume and fine tannins. Chardonnay is planted on the cooler, south-facing slope, where the gentler conditions help preserve natural acidity, elegance and finesse.
At the heart of the estate is our winery, built in 2000 from 30 cm thick rammed earth walls that keep temperatures remarkably stable, ideal for winemaking and barrel maturation. Below ground, the barrel hall maintains naturally cool temperatures and consistent humidity, allowing the wines to mature slowly and gracefully.
The Country
Wedgetail Estate lies within the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Willam clan.
This is ancient land, rich with deep cultural and spiritual significance, shaped by thousands of years of continuous human connection.
We are proud to be custodians of a place where the Wurundjeri Willam people lived, loved, fished, and cared for Country.
The Wurundjeri recognise Bunjil the wedge-tailed eagle, the great creator who shaped the landscape and gave life to the people.
At Wedgetail Estate, we honour Bunjil's lore. We protect our land and waterways, and we help safeguard this heritage for generations to come.
CELLAR DOOR
40 Hildebrand Road,
Cottles Bridge, VIC 3099
OPENING HOURS
Weekends & Public Holidays
11am - 5pm
CONTACT US
e: info@wedgetailestate.com.au
t: 0493 287 863
It is against the law to sell or supply alcohol to, or to obtain alcohol on behalf of, a person under the age of 18 years.
Victoria Liquor Licence: 32802000
The Wine
We craft our wines by hand, gently guiding them from vine to bottle.
Our approach is one of minimal intervention. We let the fruit speak for the vineyard and the season it came from, and where modern science can help, we use it not to overshadow nature, but to reveal its finest expression.
It starts with the fruit, all of it grown right here on our estate. We work the vines by hand: prunings are mulched back into the soil, fruit is dropped to control yield, and every bunch is picked and checked by hand. Lower yields mean better concentration of flavour in the glass.
Our Chardonnay is fermented in French oak barrels, with the lees stirred regularly to build richness and those subtle nutty notes.
Our Pinot Noir uses partial whole-bunch fermentation in open vats, hand-plunged daily to gently extract colour and structure, before resting in French oak to mature.
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