Thanks a lot, Bill and Wendy!

It was an absolute privilege to meet Bill and Wendy. It was a privilege because they have, in my opinion, achieved something special that, even though most people dream of achieving something similar, the majority wouldn’t even come close to it. Having bought the land in 1988, the last twenty years have been a hard slog to create the vineyard and lovely home they have today. When they first arrived, they lived in a caravan with no electricity and not even a toilet. They admit now how ambitious that was and how much faster they could have achieved things in that first year if they’d have waited for electricity.

Looking at the photos of the progress they made in those first years was impressive. From moving a whole house (a 1914 church from nearby Singleton was about to be demolished until they rescued it and had it moved) to preparing the land, from digging a dam to store enough water to nourish the vines to planting the vines themselves, Catherine Vale has required a huge amount of planning, patience and hard graft.

Creating this vineyard has required massive team work over the years and there will have been times of such stress and seeming disaster that most couples wouldn’t have been able to handle it, in my opinion.

Bill and Wendy are the type who have seen much of the world. One year they took the children out of school for a few months to travel around Europe in a van. Amazing, and something I’d definitely consider myself. What an education that is for children! Their children, now all in their 30s or 40s, are all of the adventurous type too, living all over the globe as snowboard instructors, Symphony Orchestra musicians in Europe, IT managers and bike riders who ride across the length of America in races as well as up and down Germany for a holiday!

Bill was a PE teacher at a prestigious boarding school for 36 years where he was third in the hierarchy of the staff. In the cellar door proudly hangs a display presented to him on his retirement showing photos and autographs of all the Olympians he has trained or coached - there are around 12 of them. They became a huge part of the community at this Sydney school and were heads of one of the boarding houses for many years. This is a couple who have achieved great things in their lifetime yet their modesty overrides this.

Wendy has a huge heart and shows kindness to every one of her pickers: you wouldn’t find many more vineyard owners who bake brownies for their pickers every day or serve beer and other cold drinks on their terrace after a long day’s work. Despite this, watching Wendy manage the grape pickers and getting everyone and everything in order, I knew that she wasn’t one to be messed with. Bill and Wendy are tough as nails - they’ve had to be to create Catherine Vale.

If Chris and I ever manage anything close to what Bill and Wendy have done, I’d like to say I’ll die happy, or at least extremely proud. They’ve been a real inspiration and we’re just so pleased to have met such amazing people.

Farewell Bill and Wendy -

you have taught us an awful lot!