MEET OUR TEAM |
TOBY PIETERS, OWNER
Toby brings a lifetime of small business experience and entrepreneurship to the team having started his career in the ceramic tile family business which saw him became General Manager, before the age of 20. In 2014, Toby and his partner Dianne embarked on a new adventure in the wine world, purchasing Rahona Valley vineyard, on the Mornington Peninsula. It is here Toby feel in love with sparkling wine. A quiet and generally shy man, until you get him talking about wine. Toby loves sharing his passion for wine with our winery visitors. |
DIANNE GARDINER, OWNER
Dianne is a businesswoman and entrepreneur. Having established her own market research business in 2007 at the start of the GFC, she rode out the storm and after 13 years of running the business she continues in the role as CEO today. In 2014, Dianne and Toby embarked a new adventure into the wine world. While Dianne isn't involved in the winemaking or vineyard management she loves wine and is custodian of our brand. Visit our cellar door and chat to Dianne about what makes Rahona: Seriously. Good. |
NATALIE FRYAR, CHIEF WINEMAKER
Growing up in wine region Natalie Fryar completed school work experience with Hardys winery at age 14 and at 16 she did her very first vintage. Natalie has enjoyed a stellar career that has taken her all over the world from Great Western to Champagne and Tasmania. Known in the industry as “the Queen of Bubbles”, Natalie was for over 14 years the winemaker at Jansz Tasmania, helping to establish it as a leading Australian sparkling wine specialist . Today she has her own sparkling wine company Bellebonne, a gin company Abel Gin and consults to numerous wineries, including Pipers Brook Vineyard, who make sparkling wine under the Kreglinger, Pipers Brook and Ninth Island labels. In late 2018 Natalie became Rahona Valley’s sparkling wine consultant and in 2019 became the Chief winemaker. |
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ALISDAIR PARK, WINEMAKER
Developing a passion for wine while working in the events industry in Sydney, Alisdair opted for a change in career and graduated with a Bachelor of Viticulture and Oenology from the University of Adelaide in 2013. He has undertaken vintages in several regions in Australia, Spain and the United Kingdom. Training as an assistant wine maker with Hardys, Alisdair worked in the Arras sparkling wine program for several years under Ed Carr, where he gained a passion for crafting quality sparkling wine. During this time he had the opportunity to undertake a vintage at the sparkling wine house Nyetimber in the UK which gave him further experience in cold climate wine production. Since moving to Victoria in 2018 Alisdair has furthered his interest in producing wines from cool climate regions and joined Rahona Valley to focus on producing top quality cool climate wines. |
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ABOUT THE VINEYARD
Latitude: 38.4 S Longitude: 145 Altitude: 150 metres Harvest: mid-late April |
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OUR PHILOSOPHY: Seriously. Sustainable.
Rahona Valley is among one of the handful of boutique, small producers scattered throughout the Red Hill region. The vineyard is the most densely planted, in term of vines per acre, on the Peninsula. This helps control the vigour of vines as they have to compete for nutrients, resulting in high quality fruit. But producing the best wine requires care and attention to detail. Toby and Dianne purchased Rahona Valley in July 2014, and moved from an inner city suburb of Melbourne to the welcoming community of Red Hill. Their philosophy for Rahona Valley is to produce the highest quality wine through best practice vineyard management and sustainable farming principles including:
Together these practices ensure the sustainability of the vineyard and the natural environment that surrounds. ABOUT OUR LOGO Natural beauty surrounds Rahona Valley in all directions and it was this that gave inspiration to our new label design. The Wedge Tail eagles that soar high above the valley. The worlds largest raptors with a wing span of up 3.5 metres are mesmerising to watch from the vineyard. Not only glorious to watch they are a welcome birds of prey, keeping other bird pests well away from the vineyard. |