Aeon Wines

If the name Tulloch rings a bell, it certainly should. The Tulloch family are certified Hunter Valley royalty, with a winemaking lineage that stretches back generations. But Aeon is not your grandfather’s Hunter Shiraz.

This is the personal "side hustle" of Alisdair Tulloch (the fifth generation of the clan and current Operations Manager at Keith Tulloch Wines) and his wife Kenisha. It is a project born from a desire to strip everything back and focus entirely on the dirt. As Alisdair puts it: "The variety is the language that the story is written in, but the geology and climate are the story itself."

The philosophy here is radically simple but geologically complex. Alisdair manages the vineyards himself, ensuring sustainable, meticulous farming. In the winery, things get even more interesting. Drawing on his time working with Rhône legends like Chapoutier and Domaine Rostaing, Alisdair leans hard into 100% whole bunch fermentation.

He isn't interested in smothering the fruit in new oak (or "French trees" as he calls them). Instead, these wines are raised in older, large-format oak to preserve the distinct personality of the soil - whether that be the sandy alluvial flats of Pokolbin or the black basalt of the Upper Hunter.

The result is a range of wines that feel distinctly modern yet nod to the "Light Dry Red" history of the region. They are savoury, nervy, lower in alcohol (often sitting around 13%), and structured by the stems rather than wood. They are love letters to the Hunter Valley, written in a new dialect.

Production is tiny - we are talking just over 100 dozen for some labels - so these are genuine small batch wines.