POSTED: 23 AUGUST 2010

Mornington's Rollo is wine's top young gun*

Rollo Crittenden, second generation winemaker from Mornington Peninsula’s Crittenden Estate, has been named as this year’s Young Gun Australian Winemaker of the Year. Representing a region that is barely 30 years old, Rollo’s win reinforces the quality offering from Crittenden Estate and the Mornington Peninsula overall.

Announced last week at the Young Gun of Wine Awards ceremony at Melbourne’s Supper Club, the awards night was the culmination of a week-long festival celebrating the freshest, newest and most innovative young winemaking talent in the Australian wine industry.

Rollo has worked in the industry much of his life. He started on his family’s vineyards, working with father Garry, at an early age. After gaining further invaluable work experience and exposure in California, Oregon, Italy and the Hunter Valley, Rollo has settled back home at Crittenden Estate to head up winemaking operations, overseeing production of the Crittenden Estate, Pinocchio, Geppetto and Los Hermanos ranges.

Rollo leads a pack of emerging second generation winemakers on the Peninsula whose talent, energy and enthusiasm give an added layer of depth to the local wine industry, which in turn contributes so much to the local economy.

Rollo’s father Garry was an innovator in the development of alternative varietals in Australia and this pioneering spirit has continued with Rollo and his sister Zoe establishing the Los Hermanos (which translates as ‘the siblings’) range in 2008.

Featuring classic Spanish varietals, complete with quirky packaging and a snappy winemaking approach, the Los Hermanos range has further established Rollo’s credentials as an innovative winemaker with a global approach. It is the Los Hermanos range of wines particularly which caught the judges’ eyes.

The Young Gun of Wine chief judge Nick Stock praised the competition’s overall standard but said that Rollo’s wines shone through: “Rollo has struck a unique chord in terms of the wines he’s making, the styles, the package and the pitch — all beautifully understated, polished and presented.”

*Based on media release issued by Crittenden Estate.

Rollo Crittenden ... leads a pack of emerging second generation winemakers on the Peninsula.