Bob Oatley’s instinctive nature and ability to seize an opportunity has seen him lead the way in the world of wine, tourism and now in Olive Oil.
Mudgee has long been central to the direction of winemaking in Australia. From one Australia’s oldest wineries- Mudgee’s now 150 year old Craigmoor-came the highly prized chardonnay budwood grafts that populated a new wave of Australian vineyards in the wake of a history-altering event: Robert Oatley’s creation of Rosemount Estate Chardonnay.
When Bob planted his first vineyard in the Hunter Valley in 1969, French wine was pre-eminent. When he put his first wines into Australian shops in 1975, there was no export market for Rosemount Estate- or virtually any other Australian wine.
Bob’s solution- create the market. Bob developed a mantra about quality and taste, he recognised that wine, to the taste of many, lacked a flavor connection to its consumer.
Always looking for the “wow” factor, Bob made a bold move: he created accessible, easy to drink wines that weren’t afraid to show their varietal colours with assertive flavours.
Almost overnight, Bob Oatley’s wines became “The taste of Australia”, and the style that defined a continent. With his chardonnay in Europe and followed by shiraz in the US, Bob Oatley created the first “Aussie Style” and an international following for Australian wine.