In the liner notes of ‘A Tribute to Jack Johnson,’ Miles Davis refers to guitarist John McLaughlin’s playing as “far in.” Those familiar with this record will know what Davis was alluding to; McLaughlin’s playing was so natural that it had become indistinguishable from the music he was playing. If you know Luke Lambert and his wines, then you will recognize this analogy. Refusing to slavishly follow the conventions and rituals of by-the-book winemaking, Luke Lambert crafts the kind of wine that his vineyards would want him to make; deep, wholesome and “far in.”

Luke is obviously inspired by his love of Piedmont and his winemaking gigs in Australia (Coldstream Hills, Denton) yet firmly believes that “the shape of a wine should be governed by what soil you’re on, the aspect, the amount of sunshine and rain.” In other words, the personality of a wine will be dictated by its place. In 2004, Luke cashed all his chips in to bet on himself, using his small garage in Yarra Glen as a makeshift winery. He sourced sites in poor, rocky and elevated pockets of the Yarra Valley, which he felt really highlight the unique geographic profile in the resulting wines. More recently, Luke purchased 36 acres of land just north of the Yarra Valley in a town named Yea. Here, he has planted a new vineyard entirely to Nebbiolo. The vineyard is called ‘Sparkletown,’ a name coined by Luke’s daughter, Olive, after seeing the way the sun bounces of the land’s rocky slopes. On this six-acre, northeast-facing, bowl-shaped site, Luke is experimenting with five different clones on three different rootstocks at three different soil densities. “I always loved the Japanese ethos of doing one thing and doing it to the best of your ability,” Luke said in a 2019 interview with The New York Times’ wine critic, Eric Asimov. “In the end I just want a small six-acre vineyard that I can manage every vine and every liter of wine myself.”