His Saffron Gramophone wines, in particular, have picked up several awards in that time — and 2025 was no different.
Mark’s Nebbiolo and Malbec took out gold medals at the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show in Mildura.
To follow that up, he was at the North East Wine Challenge in Beechworth, where his Gamay took out a silver medal and his Malbec a bronze.
“The Australian Alternative Varieties show is probably the holy grail of wine shows for alternative varieties,” Mark said.
“I suppose Australia is predominantly known for the big varieties like Shiraz, Cabernet, Chardonnay.
“But there's a bit of an undercurrent of producers that are pursuing the more weird and wonderful varieties.
“That's where my background is. I used to work in California for the largest winery in the world.
“We worked a lot with different kinds of clones and emerging varieties.
“That's where I fell in love with Malbec and when I came back here I started growing it, which piqued my curiosity to look at other varieties.”
Mark said the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show gave out about 84 gold medals to producers from across the country.
“Generally, in each class they might give out two gold medals,” he said.
“In the Malbec class and the Nebbiolo class, I got one of two gold medals issued.
“I was one of two or three producers in the whole show to get more than one gold medal.”
With regards to the North East Wine Challenge, Mark said it was always great to take part with other local producers such as Swanpool Creek.
He said the beauty of wine shows was that it was all about people's perceptions, and while his Malbec was the showstopper up at the Mildura event, his Gamay had a better showing at the NEWC.
“It’s nice that it draws a bit of attention to local wines,” Mark said.
“There’s some really good producers around.
“The wine shows are a great opportunity to go and have a look at other wines and see how they compare.
“If there are particular varieties that you're interested in, you can go, ‘oh, I'm going to try this one’.
“Even growing here in the north-east, you can grow the same variety of grape over the hill and the wine will taste completely different.”
Mark said winning an award at such prestigious wine shows was akin to acing an end-of-year exam.
“You spend your whole year growing and being with the vines,” he said.
“I have an appreciation for the wine more than anyone else, for my wine in particular.
“But then that passion flows on to other wines because I know how much work goes into producing good wines.”
Mark said it was a great industry to be involved in, with producers always supporting each other.
“Especially when things are tough, people help each other out,” he said.
“I also grow cherries and sometimes it’s every man for himself.
“On the viticulture side of things, everyone’s like, ‘oh, you’ve got frost? Hey, how about you try this?’
“That’s been our experience, there’s some really good support.
“The industry, as a whole, looks after each other. And if someone does well, I think others definitely benefit from it.”
