Winsor Dobbin

DRURY Lane Estate may be a newcomer on the Hunter Valley wine industry block, but there is plenty of experience and expertise on hand.
Owners Alexandra and Angus Scott come from corporate IT and farming backgrounds respectively and they have employed two of the Hunter’s most knowledgeable wine industry hands to guide them on their way: viticulturist Liz Riley and consultant winemaker Richard Done.
That’s a whole lot of important bases covered.
Located on Hermitage Road in Pokolbin, Drury Lane Estate is what used to be known as Hermitage Heights vineyard, with soil on limestone foundations with a mixture of red clay, sandy loam, and silty soils.
The vines here are approaching 30 years of age – and the grapes have been used for some regional standouts in the past.
This beautiful country estate, set on almost 45 hectares, features a grand main homestead and a manager’s residence while the vineyards are planted with shiraz, semillon, and chardonnay.
The Scotts purchased the property in the middle of the Covid pandemic, but immediately set to work with three wines from the 2022 vintage – a semillon, a rosé and a shiraz nouveau – already in the market with eye-catching new labels.
The Scotts are used to success.
She was a corporate highflyer with a US cyber tech company, and he played rugby union professionally for a decade as a prop forward for the Western Force, Queensland Reds, and ACT Brumbies after growing up on the family cattle and crop farm at Cootamundra in the Riverina, the birthplace of another sportsman: Sir Donald Bradman.
Former Western Force coach John Mitchell said of Scott, who retired from rugby in 2008 due to injury: “Gus was one of the best loosehead props in Australia”.
Alexandra, meanwhile, describes herself on LinkedIn as “a strategic hunter, problem solver and creative thinker”.
The super successful couple decided they wanted a vineyard in the Hunter Valley – just up the road from their Sydney home – so they went out and purchased one.
When Hermitage Heights came up for sale, they saw it as the perfect opportunity.
“They say every cloud has a silver lining, and ours was that in the middle of Covid, the company I worked for closed our Sydney offices and globally adopted a ‘work from anywhere’ policy,” says Alexandra. “So, Angus and I sold up in Sydney and moved to the Hunter.”
The husband-and-wife team have an ethos based around sustainable farming, authenticity and challenging the status quo.
With his farming background and her sales and marketing drive combined, their dream is to create wines that rival the best of the Hunter.
“A shiraz nouveau is a shiraz that has been harvested and bottled in the same year – it is young, fresh and sexy,” Alexandra says.
“This year we sold all our chardonnay grapes but in 2023 we will be bottling a large portion of these and adding a modern tasting chardonnay to our line-up, along with a sparkling wine – plus a traditional shiraz, which will be our 2022 picked shiraz that has been aged in oak for 18 months.”
Featuring a very distinctive whippet on their label, the logo pays homage to Alexandra’s family, with the same dog appearing on the Drury family crest.
There is a real synergy to their Hunter story.
Alexandra says she was always drawn to the Hunter. “Much of my youth was spent visiting the area, going to wineries and restaurants, playing golf and enjoying music festivals,” she says. “Angus and I even got married in Wollombi.”
The couple has linked with two people who know more about the Hunter, grapes, and wine than most in Riley and Done.
Riley is the owner and operator of Vitibit Pty Ltd and a leader in viticultural consulting. She was the Hunter Valley Wine Industry’s 2011 Viticulturist of the Year, the 2017 ASVO Viticulturist of the Year and received an award for excellence from the Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association in 2021.
Done, meanwhile, is the head winemaker at Bimbadgen Hunter Valley and also operates his own label, being owner/winemaker at John Wallace Wines.
He has been making wine in the Hunter Valley for 15 years, first with Scarborough Wines and then Thomas Wines before taking up his current role. He has a Masters in Wine Science and Viticulture and Bachelor of Business in Hotel Management.
He was the recipient of the Alisdair Sutherland scholarship in 2015 for an up-and-coming wine show judge.
Along with learning about the winemaking business, the Scotts are raising four children, aged between five and 15.
But wait, there is more to this all-action couple. In addition to co-founding Drury Lane Estate, Angus is also the principal of ScottBuilt, a full-service residential builder servicing the Central Coast, Newcastle, and Hunter Valley.
Building up Drury Lane Estate is Alexandra’s planned transition out of corporate life.
“I could never retire because I can’t sit still, but the estate presented the opportunity to combine my sales, marketing and leadership skills with my passion for wine, to make a living out of doing what I love,” she says.
“I have spent most of my life selling other people’s products but have always wanted to produce my own – Drury Lane Estate presented that opportunity.
“There is nothing more satisfying than growing your own grapes, producing and bottling the wine and being able to taste the finished product and share it with the people you love.
“I am super proud of what we have achieved on the estate thus far – and look forward to a bright future ahead. We will aim to produce classic wine varietals made to taste young, fresh and sexy.
“I could never have made the move without my husband by my side. He is our vigneron, which translates in French to a person who cultivates grapes for winemaking. He is a jack of all trades around the property and does anything and everything from managing the vineyard, fencing, and herding cattle to renovating the homestead and building our cellar door.”
Yes, there is a cellar door coming soon.
“He works very closely with our viticulturist, Liz Riley, to make sure that the vines and fruit are the best they can be. He is slowly teaching me to be more hands on in the vineyard… I have learned how to spray the vines and my next lesson is how to drive a tractor.”
Until the cellar door opens in 2023, “our focus is on building out our online sales and working hard to find stockists and partners who share our brand values,” says Alexandra.
#Drury Lane Estate won a Gold Award in Winestate’s annual semillon tasting with 96 points. For full details see
www.drurylane.com.au.