Photo: Nic Duncan

Brave New Wine Story

Brave New Wine was conceived one dark and stormy night, as an antidote to Andries’ (ex) day job of working in conventional wineries. We started by making a barrel of whole-bunch Chardonnay, a skin-contact Riesling, and a Pet Nat. Hosana, it was a revelation! These are the wines we wanted to drink, and the wines that were the most fun and rewarding to make.  After two redundancies we decided to make a red hot go of it alone – and Brave New Wine switched from being our side chick to our main bae.

Andries is an old geezer who has been kicking about the Aussie wine industry for the last 25 years. He has done vintages and worked on vineyards in the Adelaide Hills, Hunter Valley, Great Western, Yarra Valley, Margaret River, Central Otago, Emilia-Romagne Italy, Pemberton, and of course, the Great Southern. He enjoys long walks on the beach with his surfboard, wrestling with his kids, eating biltong, and procrastinating (jokes!).

Yoko has been gracing the cellar doors of the south west regions since before it was legal. After racking up an amazing amount of unfinished degrees and apprenticeships (Fine Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Cabinet Making, and bizarrely, Accounting), she is now content being Andries’ hose beast and keeps the creative juices flowing by painting all the Brave New Wine labels, and making Yokoshopped Social Media posts. Yoko enjoys laughs with her kids, digging in her veggie patch, and making biltong.

We live in a rambling old mill house in Denmark, WA, with our two kids, two mongrel dogs, and flock of heritage chooks.