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. |
LUCY KENDALL, WINEMAKER
Over the past 10 years, Lucy has undertaken vintages all over the world from Burgundy to Chile to several wine-growing regions in Australia. She has a good understanding of the industry after working in wine production, sales, and wine retail, undertaking her WSET training and finally her Masters of Viticulture and Oenology in 2015. Lucy is passionate about cool climate wine-growing and with a passion for sparkling wines, aromatic whites, and light-bodied reds. In 2018, Lucy accepted a winemaking role at Pipers Brook Tasmania where she got to refine her understanding of these styles and work in one of Australia’s premium wine-growing regions. In early 2020, Lucy moved back to her home state of Victoria and joined the Rahona Valley team to further develop her sparkling and cool climate winemaking skills. |
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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. |