Decades

Three decades after meeting at Roseworthy College, winemaker/consultant Steve Flamsteed (ex-Giant Steps, see separate entry) and brewer Brad Rogers, co-founder of the Byron Bay beer brand Stone & Wood, decided to make wine together. In ’22, they bought the old Woodlands vineyard (not to be confused with the producer of the same name) from viticulturist Paul Laing (Mapleton, see separate entry) in Tea Tree in Southern Tasmania’s Coal River Valley and renamed it Decades after the Joy Division song (although it’s also a nod to the length of their friendship and the age of the original vines, which were planted in ‘92), and in ’23, made the first pinot noir and chardonnay. An additional 7ha of vines, mostly pinot noir, have been planted since, bringing the total area under vine to around 10.5ha (just 1.3ha of this is chardonnay), although only the most premium fruit will ever be used to make Decades wines. -ANNA WEBSTER