As a young girl in Bulgaria, winemaker Elena Brooks’ mother worked in a winery. Perhaps ‘winery’ is an understatement; this was a 45,000-ton operation that employed 500 people and had their own dentist on site. When communism fell in 1990, an influx of foreigners, namely Australians, came to work at this winery for big supermarket brands. At the age of 12, Elena was interpreting at the winery after school, and by 16 she was making her first batches of Chardonnay using her mom’s panty hose as a filter. A few years later, she’d move to Adelaide to study winemaking. Elena was drawn not only to the winemaking side but the marketing of wine, as marketing wasn’t exactly a thing in communist Bulgaria. She’s a true entrepreneur in every sense of the word, diving not only into the product, wine, but the sales, marketing, and philosophy of the product.

After living and studying in South Australia for a few years, Elena met who would become her husband, Zar Brooks, at a wine tasting panel in 2000. She stayed in Australia and worked at Redheads Studios for a a few years before she got the urge to go off on her own. At the time she started Dandelion, the trend in Australia was big, bold red wines. Elena, who is also being Sister’s Run and Heirloom Vineyards, launched Dandelion to tell a new story, one of acid and tannin and aroma over fruit and alcohol alone. She was also trying to tell the story of place and regional diversity, which she believes is paramount if Australia wants to compete globally. While Australian wine today faces plenty of challenges, Elena’s perspective is one of gratitude to be making history, writing the playbook for Australian wines alongside an incredibly talented cohort of peers in the industry. Changing the narrative has always been Elena’s drive. When she started Dandelion nearly two decades ago, she had one lofty mission: to change people’s palates.

Elena and Zar both grow their own grapes and source fabulous old vine fruit from some of the finest, old-vine family vineyards in Barossa, McLaren Vale, and Eden Valley, and they vinify with a Goldilocks amount of handling. The wines reflect the classic styles from their respective regions, i.e. high acid Riesling from Eden Valley, plush Shiraz from the Barossa, etc. As for the Dandelion logo, Elena chose this pesky little weed because it’s the heart and soul of the vineyard. It sprouts with the first site of life in the soil and air, and it eventually refolds back into the earth to become food for the vines. Today, Dandelion Vineyards is a member of Sustainable Winegrowing Australia and is currently working towards certification. These wines remain some of the best values coming out of Australia, and Elena’s drive and optimism make her a joy to watch succeed. We get the sense she’s just getting started…