Some people don’t even believe there’s a vineyard there, let alone the site that spawned a second coming for one of the country’s most hallowed cool-climate regions.

Reg Egan was working as a lawyer when he decided to plant a vineyard in the Yarra Valley in 1963. The site he chose was not far from his Melbourne practice—so close, in fact, that he was sure he’d have to sell it in the medium term. He had a contingency for that, which didn’t work out as he’d expected. That’s a fascinating anecdote covered in this interview with his younger daughter, Maryann.

By the mid-1980s, Reg had given up the law and was working on the vineyard full-time. The mélange of varieties he’d started with eventually whittled itself down to a range of four wines, named for his granddaughters: Amelia (Chardonnay), Lily (Pinot Noir), Amelia (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot) and Hannah (Cabernet Franc/Merlot).

Those are the daughters of his daughters, Liz and Maryann Egan. Liz went on to become a celebrated chef and restaurateur, while Maryann studied wine, working patchily among the vines in her early years before assuming the helm at Wantirna Estate over the past couple of decades.

We touch on other icons of the Yarra Valley here. Maryann mentions being good friends with Sandra de Pury, the fourth-generation winemaker at Yeringberg. This storied estate was founded in 1863 and underwent a significant hiatus during the Yarra’s post-Great War dormant period. Maryann also mentions Sam Middleton, third-generation vigneron at 1971-founded Mount Mary.

Sam’s grandfather, Dr John Middleton, and his wife, Marli, were among a legendary quartet of friends, along with the Egans, Ian and June Marks of Gembrook Hill and Dr Peter and Margaret McMahon. You can read more about this foursome here. Suffice to say, each of them has had a tremendous impact on notions of the quality potential and terroir stamp of Australian wines.

Another doctor features in this piece: Bailey Carrodus. Reg and Bailey planted the vineyard that would become Yarra Yering—another top-flight Australian producer. How that panned out is quite some story, but not widely known.

When it comes to Maryann’s own career, she worked a harvest at Tyrrell’s, one of the greats of the Hunter Valley, NSW, and there met Wayne Donaldson. The latter was the first winemaker at Domaine Chandon, the Yarra Valley bubbly outpost of LVMH, owner of Champagne house Moët et Chandon. During her six-year stint at Chandon, Maryann’s boss was influential Aussie sparkling-wine pioneer Tony Jordan, who passed away in 2019.

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After leaving Chandon to have her two children, Maryann scored a presenting role on the television show Wine Lovers’ Guide to Australia alongside co-hosts Grant Van Every and Pria Viswalingam. Australian residents can still stream both series of the programme, which first aired in 1999, on SBS on Demand.

Maryann speaks with fondness of visiting winemakers on her travels, and credits Melbourne fine-wine merchant Prince Wine Store and CellarHand, Wantirna Estate’s Australian distributor (for whom I work), with setting up some of those connections. The trio of wonderful women we name-check are Virginie Taupenot of Domaine Taupenot-Merme in Morey-Saint-Denis, Elsa Matrot in Meursault (both in Burgundy’s Côte d’Or) and Claudia Cigliuti of Barbaresco producer Cigliuti.

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