Great place to work

By Mara Pattison-Sowden
The white-collar worker, who lives in Badger Creek, turned winemaker when he produced his first vintage in 1998 – and he hasn’t looked back.
“I started working straight out of school and ended up going back and doing a winemaking course,” he said.
“It’s great; once you stick the vines in, a lot of it is walking the fields and tasting the grapes.”
Mr Carter spent a season working for a winery in Oregon on the west coast of America – and one of that country’s major areas for wine production.
“Oregon is a food bowl,” he said, with more than 300 wineries in an area slightly bigger than Victoria.
Mr Carter stayed for four months over the harvest on a working holiday visa, before returning to work in the Hunter Valley.
He said he learned a lot from the Oregon wine industry, including the difference in the machinery used.
“I managed to source a similar 50-year-old wine press they were using,” he said.
“In the end, everything is made, grown and done here – we don’t outsource anything and our workers help in the process from pruning to bottling.”
Running the 35 hectares of Bulong Estate since 2004, Mr Carter said the flavours of the wines was what the customers liked.
“I was told our Pinot Gri’ was a different style to what one particular judge liked, but he told me, ‘if the people like it, just keep making it’,” he said.
Expanding the flavours in the Sauvignon Blanc earned Mr Carter and Bulong Estate a national title in November, winning the Best Dry White Table wine at the Dan Murphy’s National Wine Show of Australia.
Mr Carter travelled to Canberra for the awards, returning with a beautiful hand-blown glass plate trophy.
The estate has grown with the addition of a French chef in the weekend restaurant – and a variety of wine to taste at the cellar door.