Brian Fletcher
Australia
Veteran Australian winemaker raising the bar for Aussie wines
- Brian, from the Margaret River in WA has been producing for 30 years now and once managed a winery in Tunisia, Italy working out of an old colonial French Chateau making Carignan.
- 3 decades of experience means that he's very close to dedicated and exceptional growers in Margaret River and he always gets first dibs on their fruit.
- If you like Australian wine, Fletcher is your new best Friend. Thanks to him, you can afford to drink top notch Oz wines at every day prices.
Brian Fletcher's Story
Brian Fletcher's Story
"I have been producing for over 30 years now. I like to drink wine, that helps, and what better way to infiltrate this pleasurable pastime than to make the stuff as well. More seriously, when I worked in Italy, I was there for five years, it seemed as if all that work I had done as a young winemaker became really focused. I had all the tools and experience at my fingertips and it was a very steep curve of language, family and culture but I stuck at it and made some terrific wines for my Italian friends. I knew then that this was the way for me.
Part of my Italian responsibilities was overseeing a winery in Tunisia. We worked out of an old colonial French chateau making Carignan talk about history; you could find bits of Roman mosaic in the olive groves and bits of the Afrika Korps here and there. There were many strange experiences here, there were some old derelict Italian wineries nearby, built at the turn of the century. Exploring the old cellars we had an Indiana Jones moment when the whole lot, wooden beams, spider webs and masonry came down around us. We were untouched.
I listen (to customers) and observe. I put a lot of myself into my wines. I think the approach that Naked Wines are taking is going to allow me to explain a lot more about what I have done and what I would like to do in a winemaking sense. It still is very much a voyage of discovery.
I am very lucky to be working with really dedicated growers and I hope to further refine and innovate the wines I produce in partnership with these growers. I already have a hand in making Australia's most expensive Tempranillo and would like to think that I can continue to experiment with grape growing and winemaking techniques to keep producing interesting and attractive wines.
This really is an exciting part of the whole Naked Wines phenomena. Upfront funding provides a fantastic opportunity for me to innovate without a total financial exposure. I know upfront what I need to make and I can then craft the wines without the awful feeling of the commercial risk of selling the wine. I think the spark of creativity has had some serious fuel poured on it since I have been involved with Naked Wines. I can see the day when I get to talk directly to the Angels and we (together) create a new wine from scratch. I have a fantastic fruit resource with my growers and a wonderful region in Margaret River to work with. I am only limited to what will sell and what a great opportunity to find out by talking directly with the Naked Angels. It is going to be great to see my wines on a world stage with a direct connection to the people who are going to drink them, enjoy!"
