Stuart Marshall
Penninsula Perfectionist
Producing pristine fruit for award-winning wines is no simple feat, but for viticulturist Stuart Marshall, it’s all about going back to basics.
It was on a tour of some of the world’s best wine regions that inspiration struck Stuart. He’d completed a viticulture degree and worked in a large vineyard in Victoria, but travelling to Napa Valley, Oregon, Champagne, Bordeaux and Burgundy inspired a new passion in him. Today he’s the meticulous viticulturist behind some of the Mornington Peninsula’s best wines, forging his own path among the vines.
Pure and simple
On Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, a cool-climate region surrounded by water, Stuart has turned his passion into an art form as the viticulturist for the award-winning Kooyong and Port Phillip Estate. He joined the team in 2017 after many years at nearby Stonier.
“There are so many different sites and subregions within the Mornington Peninsula … I can’t think of a better place to grow grapes anywhere in the world.”
The region’s natural beauty is another drawcard for Stuart, who likes to surf and spend time on the pristine local beaches. The unspoilt environment makes it an ideal place for wine production, and Stuart believes sustainable farming is vital to protect soil health and create authentic wines.
“You can go out to the vineyard and taste fruit just prior to harvest, and those flavors that you see in the grapes, you can see it in the wine 12 months later,” he says. “The wine really expresses those unique flavours of the site.”
Communication and collaboration with the winemakers are also at the heart of Stuart’s success.
“I try and get as much of the back story as I can about how the wines are made, so that what I am doing in the vineyard can enhance that,” he says. “We want to keep pushing and keep performing to get the best out of our vineyards.”
With many years of experience behind him, Stuart believes that growing the best grapes is less about complicated techniques and technologies and more about going back to basics.
“The longer I’ve been in the industry the more I try and simplify things, and just scale it back,” he says. “I know it sounds boring, but I think if you just get the basics right you’re halfway there to producing fruit of a really good quality.”
“We want to keep pushing and keep performing to get the best out of our vineyards.” – Stuart Marshall
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