A. Rodda

A. Rodda is Adrian Rodda, working out of Mayday Hills in Beechworth, north-east Victoria. He has been making wine since 1998, first alongside David Bicknell at Oakridge in the Yarra Valley, where he was closely involved in the development of the Oakridge 864 Chardonnay and made his final contribution to that wine in 2009.

At the start of 2010 Adrian and his wife Christie moved to Beechworth and joined Mark Walpole of Fighting Gully Road to work the Smiths Vineyard, planted to Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot back in 1978. From 2011 the range grew to take in a Bordeaux blend built around Smiths Vineyard Cabernet, and a Tempranillo from the Aquila Audax vineyard, his first attempt at a Mediterranean variety.

In 2012 he began what he calls the Chardonnay Project: working with established premium Chardonnay sites across Victoria and vinifying them in parallel, Willow Lake in the Yarra Valley alongside Smiths at Beechworth. A third single-vineyard site followed in 2017, the Baxendale Vineyard at Whitlands in the King Valley, high in the cooler upper reaches of north-east Victoria at 560 to 620 metres. Three Chardonnays, one hand and one method, three quite different pieces of ground.

More recently Adrian has planted a high-density Nebbiolo vineyard on his own Mayday Hills property and bottled the first harvest from the 2023 vintage. There is no cellar door. He shares premises with Fighting Gully Road and spends his time in the vineyard.