Bill Shrapnel
RISING ABOVE
Orange is a region on the rise and Bill Shrapnel is helping to lead the charge, producing elegant wines from a vineyard on the slopes of an extinct volcano.
Wine is typically a long game, but Colmar Estate shot to prominence quickly, winning awards and exceeding the expectations of Bill and his wife Jane. But there’s a lot more to this ‘overnight’ success story, including decades of dreaming and planning after an inspiring trip Bill took through the wine regions of France.
Hitting a high point
In the 1970s, a young Bill cycled his way through famous wine regions and villages of France, and it inspired a lifelong love of wine – and an ambition to own a vineyard. That was a good year for Bill. He also met his wife Jane (at an anti-nuclear protest in Brisbane). After decades of dreaming – while Bill worked in nutrition and Jane in nursing – they finally bought a vineyard in 2013, in the highlands of the burgeoning Orange wine region.
“We believe Orange has almost unlimited potential, and we see part of our job as unlocking the potential of this wonderful region,” says Bill.
They called it Colmar Estate, after the main town of France’s Alsace region. And they replanted the vineyard with varieties that suited the cool-climate, high-altitude site (at 980 metres above sea level it’s one of the highest in Australia).
The wines – including Riesling, Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer and Pinot Noir – are handmade in small batches by winemaker Chris Derrez, who hails from Burgundy in France. In 2019, Colmar Estate’s 2018 Pinot Noir won best wine at the Orange Wine Show. In fact, every wine they entered won a medal.
“We’re looking to make distinctive, single-vineyard wines,” says Bill. “We don’t want to copy anybody else. We’re just trying to express this little vineyard here.”
Three elements sum up Bill and Jane’s approach: meticulous attention in the vineyard, handpicked fruit and sensitive winemaking.
“Our philosophy is relatively simple, but it’s based around quality, not quantity,” says Bill. “We’re not interested as a business in getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Our aim is to stay small and be good.
“Each year, we ask ourselves the question, ‘how can we be better?’ Then we take a few steps in order to achieve that. We are aiming very high at Colmar Estate.”
“We don’t want to copy anybody else. We’re just trying to express this little vineyard here.” – Bill Shrapnel
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