These skills were soon rewarded on the National show circuit where he won numerous trophies and gold medals including the top gold medal at the Royal Melbourne Wine Show and placing in the Jimmy Watson taste-off. Internationally, Rob won the prestigious Bouchard-Finlayson Trophy for Champion Pinot Noir at the 1999 International Wine and Spirit Show in London.

After years of winemaking for the big boys, Rob “Sticks” Dolan was ready to put his name to a new style of Yarra Valley wines. The Sticks style is fresh, fruit driven, great with food, affordable and hand made. In a few short years, Rob and his team created one of Australia’s best-known value wine brands – available worldwide and all crafted in the heart of Victoria’s Yarra Valley. And why the name Sticks? At 6 foot 6, this was Rob’s nickname, back in the days when his life centred on playing Australian Rules Football for Port Adelaide. That was a few years ago now…

It’s a cliché but it’s true, great wines begin in the vineyard. Sticks draws fruit from the estate Home Vineyard at Glenview Road in Yarra Glen, and from valued Yarra Valley growers. At sixty acres, initially planted in 1983, the entire Home Vineyard is now fully mature and offers the full spectrum of winemaking options. Various trellis methods are employed, Geneva Double Curtain, Lyre Trellis, Scott Henry, Vertical Shoot Positioning and Hanging cane. Very few vineyards have this range of trellises – making the Sticks Home Vineyard unique, and frequently visited by neighbouring viticulturalists. Planted to Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Viognier, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Petit Verdot and Merlot, he site is drip irrigated from the property’s dams, with sixty five megalitres capacity in total.

The soil profiles on the Home Vineyard are grey to red clay loam topsoil (30-40 centimetres) overlaying Silurian siltstones, clay stones and mudstones. The site's free draining soil directs nutrients to developing fruit flavour, rather than vigorous leaf growth. The microclimate here is cool by Australian standards, yet warmer than Burgundy and cooler than Bordeaux. The Yarra Valley’s mean temperature of the warmest month (January) is 19.4 degree Celsius, and rainfall averages to twenty eight inches per year.

To keep up with demand, Sticks also draws fruit from twenty select growers, in and around the Yarra Valley. These growers are a vital part of the Sticks team. All are committed and dedicated to producing the best fruit possible. Sticks has worked with these guys for a long time and has developed strong friendships with them all – they’re regulars on Sticks Dolan's tasting days around cellar door, and at staff barbies. It’s a long term partnership that Sticks enjoys with the growers…one which shows in the Sticks Wines.

Skillogalee operates a wine tasting and sales area and a restaurant from an old stone cottage built in 1851 by a Cornish miner, John Trestrail, who settled here and operated the property, then called Trevarrick Farm, as a mixed home farm. He and his wife had 17 children of whom 13 survived - he was a religious man who, it is said, did not approve of drinking.

In the early 1840's, the pioneer and explorer John Horrocks settled at Penworththam, named after his home town in England. From here, he explored further north in the Flinders ranges, using Afghan camels and looking for land suitable for settlement. On one such expedition, Horrocks' party was beset by illness, injuries and bad weather. Having run short of provisions, they survived only by making a skillogalee - a sort of thin porridge or gruel, probably from grass seeds and water. The word skillogalee comes from Celtic, and the dish was commonly fed to prisoners in Ireland at the time. When Horrcocks finally made it back to Penwortham, he gave the creek nearby the name Skillogalee in memory of this event. The vineyard takes its name from the creek which runs through the eastern, lower end.

The property remained in the Trestrail family until the early 1900s. It was then planted to stone fruit and vines for dried fruit, currants and sultanas. In the 1950's and 60's it became a grazing property until it was bought by Spencer and Margaret George in 1969. It was planted to wine grapes over the next 2 or 3 years - early varieties were Riesling, Shiraz, Grenache and Crouchen (formerly know as Clare Riesling) In the early 1980's, most of the Grenache and all the Crouchen were grafted to Traminer and Cabernet Sauvignon and additional small areas were planted with new Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Malbec.

Skillogalee's first wines were released in 1976. The 1978 dry riesling won major trophies at the Adelaide Wine Show and the National Wine Show, putting Skillogalee firmly on the Australian winemaking map. The wines are produced exclusively from estate grown grapes. The styles include crisp dry whites (riesling, gewürztraminer and chardonnay), a full flavoured rosé, rich, full-bodied reds (shiraz, cabernet sauvignon and blends) and some luscious fortified wines.

At almost 500 metres above sea level, the Skillogalee vineyards are amongst the highest in South Australia. The rows are planted on the contour in shallow stony soils mainly on steep eastern facing slopes. The vines are hand-pruned and the fruit is mainly hand-picked. Yields are extremely low but the vineyard produces intense flavours and aromas and deep, richly-coloured reds. Kangaroos are major pests - significant numbers can be found around vintage time, when the hills are dry and brown, camping in the vineyards and feasting on the ripe fruit.

The Rockbank site features rich red volcanic soil over clay loam, interspersed with rocky outcrops. The vineyard is on a north-south axis and the vine trellising uses vertical shoot positioning to increase exposure to sunlight. Planting commenced in 1997 and the vineyard contains smaller blocks of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Merlot. Very special to the winemaking team are the exciting Italian varietals of Pinot Grigio and Sangiovese.

Although only relatively new, Galli Estate wines have already been recognised for quality in Australian wine shows, receiving Gold and Bronze medals for Cabernet Sauvignon, Gold for Pinot Grigio, three Bronze for Shiraz, as well as Bronze for Chardonnay and Sangiovese. Additionally the wines have received favourable reviews from noted Australian wine writers such as James Halliday.

Facilities constructed at Rockbank include the winery, a sales and administration centre and an underground cellar. Fifteen metres wide, six metres high and over 900 square metres in area, the earth covered cellar provides natural temperature and humidity control and houses the many hundreds of French oak barrels used for maturing the wines. The impressive cellar, winery and Cellar Door/ Administration buildings were built on the principles of the ancient arch system, employing steel arches surplus to the construction of the Burnley tunnel in Melbourne's city link project, giving a unique look and feel to the site.

In addition to the development at Rockbank, the Galli family have established a 250 acre vineyard at Heathcote, a Victoria wine region with an enviable reputation for quality, particularly in red wines. Located in Central Victoria about 100 kms north of Melbourne, the Heathcote wine region is classified as warm, and rainfall is limited. The growing season is warm and dry with relatively even temperature ranges during the ripening season. The harvest occurs from mid-March.

Vine planting commenced in 2000 at Galli Estate's Camelback vineyard, situated just north east of the Heathcote township. In keeping with the region's demonstrated specialty, the property is planted predominantly to Shiraz. Excellent results have also been achieved with Cabernet Sauvignon, and with an elegant, delicate Chardonnay. Since the inaugural 2004 vintage, all Heathcote fruit was immediately transported back to the Rockbank site for winemaking. "Galli Estate may be a newcomer to the scene, but it is a substantial one. A large underground cellar has been constructed. A cellar door sales, bistro and administration centre, with former Coldstream Hills winemaker Stephen Phillips in charge. The quality is as high as the prices are low!" -James Halliday

Voyager Estate's oldest vines date back to 1978, just over 10 years after vines were first planted in the area. When current owner Michael Wright took over the property in 1991, he set out to expand it and develop a visitor destination that would be a showcase for the region. He also set out to ensure that, above all else, the quality of wine being made at Voyager Estate would always be the best that nature, expertise and pure hard work could provide.

Voyager Estate owner, Michael Wright is a third generation member of a family business that started with his grandfather in 1900. Michael’s father, Peter Wright, played a major role in the discovery and promotion of WA’s substantial iron ore industry and was, along with Lang Hancock, a founding member of the Hancock & Wright group. While the family is best known for its mining involvement, it also enjoys interests in agricultural, transport and publishing to name a few.

In the opinion of Voyager Estate Viticulturist, Steve James "There are a number of differences in viticultural techniques around the world, but the basic vineyard principles common to the best producers were terroir, minimal intervention and vine management." Voyager Estate follows the same path, with a minimal or no-input policy in terms of fertiliser, water and chemicals, and are employing more and more organic practices. Maximum vine management in terms of canopy maintenance is employed, aiming for low bud numbers and small bunches per vine for premium fruit quality. Clonal selection is also an area of increased attention, trying to match the best clones to the soil.

Whilst there will always be experimentation with new technologies, experience in both the Old World and the New has shown that the deepest expression of the vineyard is reliant on the basics. Adapting the traditional vineyard philosophies of the ancient winemaking world, is at the very heart of what makes Voyager Estate the quality that it is. According to Winemaker, Cliff Royle, Voyager Estate’s winemaking philosophy is simply to make the best wines we possibly can. Traditional methods are applied and the latest technology is utilised.

The winemaking process, however, begins in the vineyard. To ensure the best possible wines are produced, the winemakers work very closely with the viticultural team during the ripening period and harvest. On the whole, the best wines come from minimal winemaking intervention and allowing the fruit to speak for itself. "We make wines from the classic grape varieties that are suited to the Margaret River region, and we put as much effort into making a lighter-style wine such as Sauvignon Blanc Semillon as we do our Chardonnay," Cliff says.