About Capercaillie Wine Company

Alasdair and Trish Sutherland established Capercaillie Wine Company in the Hunter Valley in 1995. It is a small state-of-the-art winery named for the Gaelic term for the black woodlands grouse of Scotland. Very appropriate, since Alasdair is a Scot.

The Sutherlands intend to keep the Capercaillie Wine Company as a small business, with the emphasis on the creation of premium quality wines. As an adjunct to the fruit they themselves grow, they source grapes from other top wine-producing regions around Australia. This is one of the great secrets of their success in creating wonderful blends, which display all the finer qualities of climatic and varietal differences.

The achievements of the Capercaillie Wine Company in the short time that Alasdair and Trish Sutherland have been the stewards of the winery are inspiring. Their wines are increasingly in demand, both in Australia and overseas and they have already won many awards.

Their reputation as wine producers of quality just grows and grows. Much of this success is due to the thirty years of experience in viticulture that Alasdair has, but it is a testament to the whole team that their efforts have brought about such great leaps forward.

The Capercaillie vineyard is just five hectares in size and is situated in Lovedale, on the eastern side of Hunter Valley. It was originally planted to Chardonnay, with a few acres of Gewürztraminer in the 1970s. But in the late 1990s Alasdair re-planted a small portion of the old Chardonnay with one hectare each of Chambourcin and Petit Verdot.

The broad source of supply from quality vineyards makes for an ability to produce terrific vintage variables and allows them to keep in step with ‘market trends and volume requirement fluctuations.’

The wines they have on offer at the cellar door are: Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chambourcin, Chardonnay, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Shiraz and Traminer.