“As a small winemaker, you don’t need to make a lot of wine that everyone likes. You just have to make wine that enough people love,” Simon Osicka says.
Simon is the third genera on of Osicka men to grow grapes and make wine at their boutique vineyard in Graytown, but winemaking runs in the blood beyond this region. In the true fashion of a family business, he works alongside his father, Paul Jnr, and his partner, Alison; between them they are creating quality wine that many people love.
The vineyard is one of the oldest in the Heathcote region and those first vines were planted by Paul Snr back in 1955. Paul arrived in Australia from Czechoslovakia with his wife and two small children and, having helped his grandfather and father make wine before he developed a successful wine business of his own, he decided to make wine here in Australia too.
The forest around Graytown is dark and dense, and it’s hard to imagine how someone would even find land in the area in that me – let alone se le and grow grapes on it – but Paul Snr had survived the depression and watched his wine literally wash away in World War Two. There wasn’t much that would stop him.
Rosalie, Paul Snr’s wife, recalls visiting Heathcote for the first time and visiting the Segafredo Vineyard in Graytown. Paul Snr recognised immediately that this was good land for growing grapes.
Paul Jnr started working, in an official capacity, at Osicka’s when he was in his twenties. Prior to that he’d worked in Melbourne as a jeweller, amongst other occupations. “I remember looking out the window and the sun would be shining and I’d be thinking: what am I doing here?” Paul laughs.
An exert from the recently published book, ‘A Sense of Place’, written by Sonia Anthony and Amy Doak. To read Simon and Alison’s complete journey and the story behind Osicka Winery, purchase the book online here: https://oftheworldbooks.com/product/asenseofplace/