Altera Terra

Doug Neal is a long-time, passionate student of the grape, gaining a lifetime of experience helping close mate Rick Kinzbrunner at Giaconda before launching into a career making wine at Paradise IV and Hildegard (with John Durham and Gus del Rio) in Geelong. The former Melbourne school teacher brings a curious, adventurous mind to his first solo wine undertaking, Altera Terra – Latin for 'another land' – created in '19. He seeks shiraz from 'other land' in Victoria and Canberra, always off rocky soils, for his winemaking, showcasing the beauty of what he believes is Australia’s best red grape variety. And blending? 'The great wines I tasted in the '80s were always blends from great Australian winemakers like Colin Preece, O’Shea and Lindemans. There is an art to blending which has been lost today to a certain degree.' Oak is a well-considered background note to his wines, a lesson learnt from importing barrels from France for more than two decades. -JENI PORT